La Verendrye doing its part to, "Make our community something we're proud of"

Beautification Days continue in Portage la Prairie, and so does the effort from many groups and individuals to clean up the city. 

Mark Sokolowski, vice-principal of La Verendrye School, says they are planning on participating by assigning different parts of their area to be cleaned up by students and classes.

"We are going to be going out into our community and just tidying up, looking for garbage and bits of winter debris that we can safely remove off the streets just to tidy things up."

Sokolowski states that the original idea was to go out sometime on Wednesday afternoon, but their plan might be foiled by less-than-desirable weather.

The vice-principal adds that he is excited to take part in Beautification Days as this will be the first time the schools have been able to do an initiative like this since the pandemic began.

"it'll be certainly nice for us to go out in our community and clean up and help out so our neighbourhood and our school look as best as they can."

Sokolowski talks about not just participating in the event but also teaching students the importance of Beautification Days.

"We want Portage to be a place we're proud of, and a place that we're proud to send our kids to. When things look tidy and neat, everybody's mindset changes to be more positive."

Sokolowski notes that if, worst-case scenario, the unfavourable weather keeps up, they will postpone the clean-up project to next week, even though Beautification Days is set to end this Thursday.