Handling the clean up for flood damaged properties in Merritt is costly and requires manpower. Thankfully residents could get some assistance on Saturday, April 23, as there will be a volunteer clean up event hosted at the Rotary Park.
In the public information session held by the City of Merritt on April 7, it was announced that there will be a ‘Parties of five’ volunteer event that will take place.
“The idea behind this is to have residents from all over Merritt; whether you are an organization, a volunteer group, quilting club, scout group or any kind of organization or any family that just wants to give back to the community and become involved,” said Linda Brick, head of the Merritt Support Centre, during the information session
“Grab five of your friends, grab shovels and wheelbarrows that you have and meet us at the Rotary park at 9 am to register.”
Volunteers are encouraged to bring others along and form a party of five, those who are not in a group will be paired with other volunteers.
“We’ll assign you locations to work because there are still many people that need mud to be removed from their yards and so we really want to provide that support,” said Brick.
Citizens of Merritt whose homes have been hit hard by the November floods are still reeling from the damages incurred. One of the biggest tasks at hand for these folks is the clean up of their yards. The flood carried with it massive amounts of mud and debris that was scattered throughout the damaged properties when all was said and done.
After the clean up, the Merritt Rotary club will throw a barbecue lunch at the park for the volunteers. Each volunteer will receive a wristband for the lunch upon registration.
Leslee Lucy is the president of the Merritt chapter of the Rotary Club and she explains the significance of being involved with this event.
“This gives us an opportunity as friends and neighbors in our community to come together for the people who were fortunate enough to be not as severely impacted by the flood as some other people, and help them get back on their feet.”
Lucy adds, in this case, that manpower is a resource that is equally valued as money.
“For us to band together as a group, we can do a lot more with our time in this situation than we can with our money,” Lucy explained.
“The money is still important because time isn’t going to buy things like lumber, plywood, gyprock, grass seeds and things like that.”
Registration for the event begins at 9 am on April 23, at the Rotary Park. Cleanup will take place afterwards until 2 pm.
“This is for the flood victims and also for the volunteers to enjoy the barbecue the Rotary is putting on,” said Brick. “Meet up at 9 am to register, bring your tools and it should be a very good day.”
Cutline: Along with this cleanup event, there have been other initiatives to help with the yard cleanup of flood damaged properties such as the cleanups done by Samaritan’s Purse and Christian Aid Ministries.
