Town hosts annual Pitch-In Day

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Town of Strathmore hosted its annual Pitch-In Day, April 27, encouraging residents of the community to help clean up the town. 

Mayor Pat Fule said the town works with a variety of groups every year to put on the event for people to volunteer and clean up different areas of Strathmore.

“You volunteer to try to do a little clean-up in certain areas, and I have been a part of it over the last several years,” he said. “One year I was picking up trash along George Freeman Trail, last year I was going along Westmount Drive near Strathmore Lake … other Strathmore councillors have stepped up and volunteered too.”

Clean-up activities included litter removal, park maintenance, and local beautification projects. Those who came out to attend were asked to meet at the Town Hall at noon to collect their supplies, including gloves and trash bags.

Fule added several of the local schools also tend to come out and lend a hand with the clean-up efforts throughout the day. 

Attendance at the event tends to vary, as being a largely outdoor endeavor it is weather dependent. Regardless, food and refreshments are typically brought in for the volunteers in order to make the day more enjoyable. 

“It has been running for several years now. I have been on council for 14 years and it has been running for several of them. It is something that has become kind of a tradition and different groups get involved,” said Fule. “I am not going to lie; it has become harder and harder to get volunteers in a variety of service areas and groups. It is not always easy to get people who want to or are able to get involved in cleaning up in the community.”

Despite this, Fule said the event has been able to remain steady as the years have progressed and has been relatively able to maintain attendance numbers. 

The timeline of the Pitch-In Day event was vague, as once volunteers were in their respective areas, they were effectively on their own. The town had advertised a timeline of two to six hours for the event prior to its launch date.

“A few hours is basically what you do. You try to do as much as you can in your area and contribute if you can and we just appreciate all the help,” said Fule. “I think it really does a lot to improve the beauty of the town, because when you see all the various bags of garbage picked up, you see that there has been a lot removed from the town, so it does make a visual impact.”

More information regarding Pitch-In Days is available through the Town of Strathmore website.