Published on December 20, 2022

A Look Back at 2022 Spruce Up St. Albert

From cleaning up litter to beautifying garbage cans, Spruce Up St. Albert activities – presented by TD – are designed to not only promote environmental awareness, but also encourage resident participation and positive change. As we near the end of 2022, here’s a look back on everything “Spruce Up!”

Check out the video below to see Spruce Up St. Albert volunteers in action:

“At the end of the day, we really hope our volunteers had fun while helping their city look its best,” says Jen Grant, Spruce Up St. Albert organizer. “It’s so great to see all different age groups get involved from painting garbage cans to picking up garbage and even coming out to learn about weeds.”

2022 Highlights

Garbage Can Design Contest

An initiative intended to help beautify St. albert, 19 school groups of children and youth painted garbage cans with the theme “2022 Year of the Garden” in mind. More than 2,100 votes were cast.

designed/painted garbage cans lined up on a grass field

Arbor Day

Designed specifically to get Grade 1 students excited about trees and the environment, Arbor Day is an annual event held across Canada and other countries around the world. In total, 20 schools across the city participated in a day of learning about the role trees play in their daily lives. Additionally, 1,073 seedlings were delivered to Grade 1 students.

Arbor Day

Partners in Parks

This year Partners in Parks had 89 volunteers who completed over 1,000 volunteer hours from April to October picking up litter, wedding, watering, planting or mowing greenspaces. Partners adopted park spaces from all over St. Albert such as a trail behind their house or their favourite local playground.

Weed Warriors

As the City is committed to protecting and restoring biodiversity in its natural areas, Weed Warriors offers a hands-on, educational workshop that strives to enhance the environment by teaching students and other members of the community how to identify and safely remove invasive plants from city greenspaces. Events held in June and July attracted over 115 participants.

people pulling weeds

person pulling weeds

School & Neighbourhood Cleanups

At any time of the year, an individual, group or school can organize a clean up of their neighbourhood, nearby natural area or schoolyard. In 2022, over 7,680 volunteers signed up for cleanups.

This included over 4,000 students from 14 schools participating in spring cleanups and another eight schools participating in fall clean up initiatives. Another 595 residents signed up for neighbourhood cleanups throughout this past year.

Clean and Green RiverFest

The last Spruce Up event held in September is intended to increase wildlife habitat along the Sturgeon River. Over 200 participants collected over 80 bags of litter and planted around 485 trees and shrubs along the banks of the river during this year’s Clean and Green Riverfest. Garbage bags, gloves and other supplies were provided as well as a St. Albert Centre-sponsored BBQ lunch.

To learn more about Spruce Up and look into getting involved in 2023, visit the Spruce Up St. Albert section