As Hailey Buyar walks to and from school each day, she is perplexed by the amount of garbage along the pathways and green spaces in Lacombe.
“One day I was walking and saw all the cigarette butts and garbage,” said Hailey, a Grade 8 student at Ecole Lacombe Junior High School. “It made me sick seeing all of that because it’s a beautiful City and we want it to stay that way.”
It is with this simple motive, to beautify Lacombe, that Hailey came up with the idea to start up a city-wide spring clean up.
The clean-up will occur this Saturday morning and Hailey hopes many Lacombe residents will join her in helping to clean up the City.
Hailey along with her partner in crime, her mother Wendy, plan to draw out a map and provide direction to volunteers as to what areas of the City they specifically want to target, to beautify.
Hailey would like the areas around Cranna Lake to be first priority, including around the Ecole Lacombe Upper Elementary School, Ecole James S. McCormick School, Ecole Lacombe Junior High School, Ecole Lacombe Composite High School and along 50 Ave. close to Michener Park and the highway.
“We are going to try to do it for two hours,” she said.
With a true volunteer spirit and interest in giving back to her City, Hailey first began planning the spring clean-up in her leadership class at school.
“Last term, we did a lot of stuff within the school, but this term we wanted to get out within the community and do some fundraising and different stuff,” she said.
“She’s very big into volunteering and doing stuff when she can,” added Wendy. “It’s really part of the person that she is.
“When she was eight, she planned a birthday party. We built it like a carnival - and she asked everyone to bring money instead of presents and she raised $700 or so for the Moose Jaw Humane Society.”
Last year, Hailey was the nominee and recipient of a Leader of Tomorrow Award, a time where the community recognizes youths of all ages for their outstanding volunteer contributions. This year she is again nominated in the junior high category.
The Lacombe Spring Clean-up spearheaded by Hailey will be held on April 11th.
Volunteers are encouraged to meet at the Ecole Lacombe Composite High School parking lot at 10:30 a.m.
Gloves and garbage bags have been donated by the Lacombe Community Market and the City of Lacombe for volunteers to use during the clean-up. The City will also be putting out strategically placed garbage bins for volunteers to easily place their garbage bags.
For more information about the spring clean-up contact Wendy Buyar at 403-848-1367.
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