UPDATE: 

In an email to the Steinbach Churches and Community groups involved in Saturday's Pick-up and Walk, spokesperson for this years event Dana Loewen says, 

"We picked up a lot of garbage from the parks and ditches. The city is so grateful for the hard work of the many volunteers who participated in the event. 

- 965 garbage pickers

- 40 people collected filled bags with trucks 

- 35 helped prep and serve lunch

- 20 city and organization team members

Total of 1060 people were involved with this community event

A HUGE thanks to the churches of Steinbach for coordinating. And the people of Steinbach who worked hard to pick up a LARGE amount of rubbish. 

12.52 metric tonnes!!!

For comparision, the past two times we had the event the tonnage was: 

2018 - 10.39 tonnes

2019 - 9.51 tonnes 

THANKS SO MUCH!" 

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After a two-year hiatus, several hundred volunteers in yellow t-shirts wearing rubber boots and gloves walked up and down Steinbach streets and through ditches picking up garbage.

Dana Loewen, one of the organizers of the 2022 City of Steinbach Pick-up and Walk Clean-up event says this event is a collaboration between the Steinbach churches and the city of Steinbach, and so it is a great community building event. “A lot of families look forward to it every year. It's been a great tradition in our city and so we're very excited to be doing this again.”

 

Loewen says, this year there were approximately 20 churches and three community groups that got involved. “We also have around 20 generous local businesses that have donated towards the event and towards the lunch afterwards, so this is really bringing the community together and we're just so thankful for each person but it's going to be involved in this event.”

Everyone was excited to join together as a community to clean up Steinbach.

She says, they have businesses that have donated the garbage bags and the gloves. “We have people that bring trucks to help collect the filled bags. Some others donate water, pop and the food. So yes, there's a lot of community involvement for this event.”

Loewen and the Pick-up and Walk organizing team say they had prayed for no rain and were very pleased that it turned out to be a sunny morning to clean up the city, even though it was quite windy at times.

She says this is a community event with city churches organizing it, though everyone in the community was invited to help.

Although not all the numbers are in from the amount of garbage that has been collected. She say, the weight of what was collected today will be affected by the recent wet spring. “So we might hit some records this year with things being so wet.”

Loewen would like to send out “a huge thank you to our community as I've been helping with organizing this event. I am reminded constantly of how generous this Community is and this is a wonderful city. So thank you to the people from the city of Steinbach. It's been wonderful working with you.”

Meanwhile, Randy Reimer, the City of Steinbach Public Works Manager says about the Clean-up event, “That is such a big benefit to our city as a whole along with our city staff for us to pull that off. It is just about impossible like you know, after they go through on a Saturday morning, I mean, the whole city looks great and for us to be able to pull that off with just our city staff with all the other functions and maintenance that we have to do, it's almost impossible for us to get that done. You know in the time that the community can come together and get this done.”