It's been going strong for 35 years, the Ecole West Park School Clean-a-Thon in conjunction with Blue Sky Opportunities. The next one is coming up tomorrow! (May 16th).
35 Year Tradition
Ecole West Park School Principal Derek Sawatzky commented on why he thinks this tradition has held strong for three and half decades, "It's a great partnership between ourselves as the school and with Blue Sky Opportunities as well. It's pretty great to just have an opportunity for our students to reach outside themselves, to have the opportunity to see how an organization in our community supports adults with intellectual disabilities and means a lot to this community.
So it's really critical for us as we see these kids in our school be able to just see the important work that's done outside the walls of the school and connect to the broader community. Then the other piece there is just having the kids motivated by getting out and going and canvassing and asking for donations and pledges. There's a few motivators they put in place to help our kids actually, you know, say, hey, I want to raise X number of dollars so that I can get whatever. That used to be pop and chips, and now they're doing chamber bucks, which is a great opportunity, kids have more flexible options with that. So, you know, the kids are motivated, there's some incentives there for them, but the kids are just excited to get out of school and go clean-up, which is interesting."
Related stories:
- Grade 4-6 students at Ecole West Park School grab garbage bags for 34th annual Altona Clean-A-Thon next week
- École Morden Middle School Presents: 'Finding Nemo Jr.' at the Access Event Centre this week
Hot Dogs & A/C
Two grade six students from Ecole West Park School tagged along with Principal Sawatzky to come chat about the Clean-a-Thon as well, Madeline Sawatzky and Lexi Guenter commented on what their favorite part of last year's Clean-a-Thon was, "Well, my favorite part was probably being able to like go back to school and be in like AC, also picking up trash for Altona.
OK, what about you Madeline?
UM. AC yeah."
They also talked about their excitement for the post-garbage pickup hot dogs, "So, what do you think is going to be the best thing about this year's clean-a-thon?
Hot dogs? Yeah. Get me the hot dogs.
Hot dogs.
Well, I love like just sitting outside in the pouring rain and eating hot dogs."
Clean-a-thon details:
Date: May 16th, 2025
Location: Town of Altona
Time: 1:00-3:00pm
You can enjoy the informative chat with Principal Derek Sawatzky and the entertaining conversation with Lexi & Madline all with CFAM Morning Show co-host Zack Driedger below: