It’s a dirty job…

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This article was published 05/07/2021 (1729 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Reisa Adelman and Elaine Arsenault-Schultz have been friends for 35 years, and one of the things they bond over these days is keeping Winnipeg clean.

Adelman and Arsenault-Schultz volunteer with Take Pride Winnipeg, a non-profit dedicated to keeping the city beautiful. The two friends go for walks together and pick up garbage.

“I get a little angry and wonder why people don’t make an effort to pick up after themselves, but then we start doing it and by the end, we’re happy,” Adelman says. “It’s fun.”

Founded in May 1991, Take Pride Winnipeg aims to inspire community pride, raise public awareness and promote citizen responsibility in cleaning up the city. The charity organizes a number of beautification, cleanliness and education programs each year.

Adelman and Arsenault-Schultz started volunteering about three years ago, when they joined a group organized by Take Pride executive director Tom Ethans. Group members would gather to walk around different neighbourhoods, picking up trash along the way.

“The camaraderie and the friendship are the fun part,” Arsenault-Schultz says. “You feel you’re doing something good.”

Gathering restrictions during the pandemic have meant that the group can’t get together as a whole, but Adelman and Arsenault-Schultz still meet and hit the streets.

“With COVID, I suppose it’s been something easy to do while keeping six feet apart,” Arsenault-Schultz says. “It’s helping more than just us, it’s helping the community.”

Lauren Sitarek, who has volunteered with Take Pride for nearly half of her life, agrees that being involved with the organization is rewarding.

“Take Pride Winnipeg does a lot of little things around the city — we recently did a cigarette-butt cleanup, for example — and they all add up,” the 21-year-old says. “It’s really rewarding to see the difference.”

Sitarek started volunteering with the organization after hearing Ethans speak at her school. She was 10 years old at the time.

Since then, she’s taken part in countless community beautification events, including cleaning up litter, removing graffiti, weeding, painting and watering flowers.

She has also dressed up as Take Pride’s mascot, Louie the Lion, and participated in Snow Angels, a free snow-removal program for seniors.

“I think it’s super important to start volunteering when you’re young, because it instills a sense of responsibility to take care of your community,” Sitarek says.

Volunteers are integral to Take Pride’s work. During an average year, about 20,000 people volunteer their time with the organization, Ethans says.

“Volunteerism is so important because it teaches people how they can be part of the solution,” he says. “Especially when we’re talking with younger people, we want to show them they can really make a difference in the community by volunteering and show them how important it is to give back.”

Anyone interested in volunteering with Take Pride can email carrie@takepride.mb.ca or call 204-956-7590.

“I really feel that everybody needs to work together to make sure that we’re proud of our community,” Ethans says. “We help each other to keep our community clean and beautiful.”

If you know a special volunteer, please contact aaron.epp@gmail.com.