Cleanup volunteers flock to downtown

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/05/2025 (328 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Armed with garbage bags, hand-held trash pickers and some good old community pride, more than 130 volunteers answered the City of Brandon’s call to help make downtown Brandon a little more presentable on Wednesday afternoon.

The now-annual Spring Downtown Community Clean-Up Day brought together City of Brandon staff, downtown organizations and community residents to pick up cans, bottles, paper and other refuse that had gathered outdoors over the winter months.

Volunteers were sent to various blocks downtown from Pacific Avenue to Victoria Avenue, and up to Fourth Street and 13th Street — including Stanley Park on 15th Street — to help with the cleanup effort.

The total weight of litter collected was 980 kilograms, organizers said after the event. The turnout was 134 people.

Now in its fourth year, the event’s volunteer base seems to be growing from year to year, said City of Brandon community housing and wellness co-ordinator Shannon Saltarelli, who was an organizer for the cleanup.

“I would say (we have) more. I’d say quite a bit more, and more peer involvement,” Saltarelli said. “Our downtown folks, whether they’re coming because they’ve got a social agency that’s being partnered with, or whether they’re just walking by and they’re coming to help, I’ve definitely seen more involvement from our community in general.

“And then, like lots of people from Brandon — police, Brandon Fire, the City of Brandon parks department, and then of course, local social agencies as well.”

Last year’s downtown cleanup event drew 88 people. Several organizations took part in the organization efforts, including the Downtown Biz, the Brandon Chamber of Commerce, the Brandon Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation, the Manitoba Harm Reduction Network and Prairie Mountain Health, among others.

The point of the event, according to fellow event co-ordinator and community housing and wellness programmer Amanda Dupuis, is to help give the downtown community something to rally around and feel good about.

“It’s about community building and taking all the people who care about downtown and giving them an opportunity to rub shoulders and get to know each other,” Dupuis said.

The effort by the community to take ownership of the downtown and show it a little affection does a lot of good for this part of the city, Dupuis said, allowing Brandonites to see another side to the downtown.

“It’s community building,” Dupuis said. “It’s this that makes the difference, in my opinion, because one of the biggest struggles I feel that we have with downtown is public perception. And the perception of downtown that people have that’s built over decades makes it difficult for people to want to come downtown.

“But when you build community around the downtown in a positive way, and people drive down here and they see this kind of community … if it was me, I’d want to be part of that. And it’s events like this that’s going to start shifting the narrative.”

The Spring Downtown Community Clean-Up Day was hosted in conjunction with another city event, Downtown Dump Your Junk Day, which allowed residents to get rid of larger items in two large bins stationed downtown.

» mgoerzen@brandonsun.com

» Bluesky: @mattgoerzen.bsky.social