Groups spend Saturday cleaning up the Hat

By Mo Cranker on April 20, 2019.

Medicine Hat News

A handful of groups were spread around the city Saturday to clean up certain areas and the celebrate Earth Day.

It has become a tradition for many groups to spend the day cleaning areas of the city they use throughout the year and the Medicine Hat Paddling Club was up bright and early to clean up some of the cities waterways.

The group started at Kin Coulee at 8 a.m. And worked its way up the creek picking up trash until late in the afternoon.

“This is our way of giving back just a little,” said club president Rick Redmond. “This is the fourth year we’ve been doing this and it’s a good way to make sure certain parts of the city that we use stay nice and clean. “We’re fortunate to have great bodies of water to use for our activities, so the least we can do is come out one morning and do a bit of cleaning.”

Redmond says he has noticed a big difference over the years.

“When we started we were finding shopping carts, skateboards, lots of that kind of stuff,” he said. “In more recent years it’s more little things that we’re seeing. “Doing this every year means we’ll stay on top of it and stay ahead of it.”

420 Cleanup

A group of cannabis users gathered downtown for the second year in a row to clean for a few hours before the annual 420 Smoke Up.

The group was armed with garbage bags, gloves, giant tongs to pick things up and a needle dispensing box to clean the city’s streets and parks.

“It’s important to help out,” said organizer Caelan Hart. “We know there’s a lot of stigmas around cannabis users, so we try and get out and do a bit of good in the community whenever we can.

“We’re going to clean for a bit and then smoke up and celebrate 420 as a group.”

Around town

A number of other groups and clubs also spent Saturday cleaning up the city. The Medicine Hat Skateboard Association took the afternoon to clean around the Kinsmen Skate Plaza.

The Junior Forest Wardens were in Central Park with garbage bags cleaning a number of areas around the park.

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