Today marks day one of the week long "Beautification Days" through the PCRC in Portage la Prairie. It's a week-long event in an attempt to clean up the city, in preparation for Communities in Bloom. PCRC Community Engagement Coordinator Stefanie McKim says each day this week has a different designation, including a school clean up day tomorrow, a business challenge day on Thursday, and Team Up to Clean Up on Saturday. She explains what that is.


PCRC Community Engagement Coordinator Stefanie McKim"Saturday, of course, is Team Up To Clean Up which is the community wide clean up challenge. We're going to have 6 different checkpoints throughout the city, running from 9am-12pm, and it's just come and go. You come out and we'll give you some garbage bags, gloves, some refreshments, and you go out and do what you can. If everybody pitches in, just a little bit, it'll really make a huge impact."

She notes this week is beneficial to the city for a couple of reasons.

"It also helps PCRC and other agencies in this city apply for grants. It's really important to show that community support when approaching other institutions for things like bringing in a new community garden or getting additional planters. It helps to show that our whole community is behind an endeavour like this, so this week is really important for more than just cleaning up our city, it's important in the long run too."

McKim says with a city the size of Portage, everyone needs to pitch in to keep things looking nice.

"The thing about a city the size of Portage is that we really rely on support from the community and we all make it happen together. It can't be 1 or 2 groups, or a few people who out in the who effort because it's impossible. It really is just a simple clean up, it doesn't take that long, and as I said before, just take 15 minutes to clean your area."

Here's a schedule of this week's days: 

Tuesday: Litter Index
-A survey will be done to find which areas have the most litter

Wednesday: School Day
Schools will be helping clean up their sites 

Thursday: Business Challenge Day
Local business are challenged to spruce up their buildings and compete for the FIRST EVER "I Heart Portage" Award

Friday: Blooms & Beautification

Saturday: Team Up to Clean Up
The entire community gets together to join the beautification initiative from 9am - 12pm

If you have any questions or need more details on Beautification Days contact the PCRC at 204-240-7272, e-mail s.mckim@portagecrc.com or visit www.portagecrc.com