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A group of volunteers got their hands dirty in North Central over the weekend.
It was all part of the White Pony Lodge’s “Big Clean.”
Community member Erinn Paik was among the over 50 volunteers who gathered in the Buffalo Meadows Park to clean up the neighbourhood’s alleys.
“Our biggest hope is to bring the community together to show some love and support to our neighbours and to get some of this garbage that plagues the alleyways cleaned up,” she said.
North Central community member Erinn Paik said the City of Regina has done more work on cleaning up the neighbourhood this year than in the past. (Nicole Garn/980 CJME)
Paik has spoken out before about the neighbourhood’s trash problem. As a homeowner, she said it’s been challenging to keep up with the amount of litter that accumulates every spring.
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The White Pony Lodge provided a meal, water, treats and cleaning supplies for volunteers. (Nicole Garn/980 CJME)
Paik said more progress has been made, including from the City of Regina. But she said it’s impossible to compare the help from the city to the community coming together.
“It’s about people being proud of where they come from and being a part of this really vibrant and amazing community we have here,” she said.
Paik said North Central gets a bad rep and people should know the community is vibrant, diverse, welcoming and loving.
“Until you’re really here and meet the community members, you have no idea what the neighbourhood is.”
Youth at the White Pony Lodge’s Big Clean sang for the crowd before the clean up. (Nicole Garn/980 CJME)
Leah O’Malley, board chair with White Pony Lodge, said seeing the community come together was really impactful.
“This sort of grassroots movement really does bring people together,” she said. “I love seeing other people care.”
While she’s proud of the volunteers who stepped up, she thinks the overall mentality and stereotypes surrounding North Central need to change.
“I just wish people didn’t hate it (North Central) so much that they didn’t care about it,” she said.
“Some people come here and they dump garbage because that’s what they think about it. I don’t think that about my neighbourhood and I don’t think people who live here should think that either.”
The group of volunteers split up into different teams and tackled different alleys in the area. (Nicole Garn/980 CJME)
The group plans to do another big clean in June in partnership with the North Central Community Association.
O’Malley said she hopes people continue to feel inspired to do some good in the community.
While the grassroots movement is a good one, O’Malley acknowledges that real change comes from different levels of government.
She said the group was recently highlighted at the Legislative Building by the NDP’s Meara Conway and the city helped the group put on Saturday’s big clean.
She wants to see more conversation.
“I’d really like to see a more concerted effort for everybody to sit down at the table, kind of yearly, and check in and see what’s new and what needs to be fixed,” she said.
A set of rules was on display in the park. Each group had a team leader who would take care of any hazardous items like needles that were found during the cleanup. (Nicole Garn/980 CJME)
The White Pony Lodge do patrols every Friday and Saturday night. The group picks up dangerous items like needles or medical waste.
They also provide what O’Malley calls “band-aid style services.” This includes handing out food as well as water in the summer and warm clothes in the winter.
O’Malley encourages anyone who would like to do something similar in their neighbourhood to reach out.
Volunteers cleaned up trash for three hours on Saturday. It was a come-and-go event. (Nicole Garn/980 CJME)
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