Close on the heels of another highway cleanup, local volunteers will pick up litter along Highway 567 Oct. 3.
“This is part of an annual cleanup that we do under [Alberta Transportation’s] adopt-a-highway program,” said David Maffitt, chair of Volunteer Airdrie Society. “We voluntarily do at least one cleanup per year on that stretch of highway.”
During a single shift from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., volunteers will collect garbage on a five-kilometre section of the highway west of Airdrie from the city limit to the Airdrie Rodeo Grounds at Range Road 20. Cohorts of volunteers will each be assigned a stretch of a few kilometres to clean.
“We typically go above and beyond, though,” Maffitt said. “Last year, we started at 24 Street inside the city limits and moved from there.”
Maffitt estimated Volunteer Airdrie has adopted the stretch of Highway 567 for at least five years.
“Our commitment to the government is to do at least one cleanup per year,” he said. “For the last few years, we’ve been doing it in the fall – late September, after airdrieFEST.”
He added impromptu cleanups will sometimes be arranged for people fulfilling community service requirements.
On Sept. 19, Volunteer Airdrie participated in Alberta Transportation’s annual highway cleanup, picking up litter along the Queen Elizabeth II Highway (QEII). Unlike that cleanup, Volunteer Airdrie does not receive any grant funding to help keep Highway 567 clean, according to Maffitt.
The organization does, however, receive some recognition in the form of “Caring for Alberta’s Highways” signs along the highway, he said.
The route is much shorter and typically doesn’t see as much litter as the QEII, according to Maffitt. About 20 volunteers are required to complete the route.
“Even if we were assigning three kilometres per team, our experience is people can move quite quickly through that stretch of highway and be finished shortly after lunch at the latest,” he said.
“This one is actually a lot of fun. If the weather holds and it’s a nice fall day, it’s actually very enjoyable.”
Volunteers must be at least nine years old to participate, and anyone younger than 14 has to be accompanied by an adult.
“The guidelines are very strict,” Maffitt said. “We had to turn people away who had seven-year-olds that wanted to come out this year.”
Maffitt said the preferred method of registering is through Volunteer Airdrie’s page on betterimpact.com, but volunteers can also email [email protected] or call 403-993-5034.
On the morning of the cleanup, volunteers will sign in at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Reunion, and will then be shuttled to the highway. During check-in, volunteers will complete a COVID-19 self-assessment and have their temperatures taken.
New protocols have been implemented this year to address COVID-19, according to Maffitt. Shuttles will be sanitized between transporting each cohort. Meanwhile, volunteers will be encouraged to social distance from each other and will be asked to sanitize their hands.
As with the last highway cleanup, some training is required. The training focuses on both safety on the highway and COVID-19 protocols, and includes a seven-minute video and workbook.
Volunteer Airdrie will provide vests, gloves, garbage bags and water bottles. Volunteers should dress in layers for the weather, Maffitt said, with waterproof, sturdy shoes.
The cleanup likely won’t be cancelled due to weather unless it snows, he added, as volunteers would be unable to see garbage on the ground.
Maffitt said the Sept. 19 cleanup was “terrific.” Unlike 2019, when volunteers only completed two-thirds of the assigned routes, Volunteer Airdrie cleaned its entire stretch of highway, meaning it will receive a full grant of $1,500.
Maffitt said this year, the QEII was much more littered than usual, likely because the cleanup had been postponed until the fall. He said about 30 volunteers participated – a third were youth.
“We could have used 40 volunteers for sure,” Maffitt said.
Some of the zones could have been divided in half because of the amount of garbage, he said. One group, working from the Highway 566 overpass to the Balzac weigh scales, collected 15 full bags of garbage along a three-kilometre stretch.
“They were exhausted,” he said.
Ben Sherick, AirdrieToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @BenSherick
