News & Events

The clouds parted at about 9:00am Friday morning, and it seemed only fitting that the sun started smiling down on our wonderful volunteers as they geared up for our Earth Day Community Clean Up. Almost as if to say, “Thank You”.

Your Strathcona CPC teamed up with two of our favourite partners this Earth Day to bring two impactful events to the Strathcona Community.

Over on Keefer Street, Executive Director Dan and Program Manager Alaleh brought our friends from the Vancouver Whitecaps FC to Admiral Seymour Elementary School to lead the 100+ neighbourhood kids on a clean up of their school grounds, and the surrounding streets. At morning assembly, we spoke to the group about the importance of keeping our neighbourhood clean, not littering, and being kind to everyone around you as a way of taking care of our planet.

Suddenly a huge cheer went up from the gathered crowd as Whitecaps mascot Spike sprang forward!  Spike was offended immediately as one child yelled out “Are you a Blue Jay!?”.  For those not in the know, Spike is a proud Belted Kingfisher. Spike, Whitecaps legend Carl Valentine and members of the Whitecaps Women’s Elite program then led the kids outside to perform a school wide and neighbourhood clean up.

The kids then proceeded to collect over 20 Bags of garbage, all before recess. It was heart warming to see the kids excitedly run up to us and say “I found some garbage!” proudly displaying a crumpled coffee cup at the end of a pair of tongs. Everyone had smiles on their faces the entire time as everyone pitched in to make a little bit of a difference today. After the clean up, the SCPC team and the Whitecaps stuck around for recess to play some mini games with the kids, and to chase Spike around the field … poor Spike.

A huge Thank You to Admiral Seymour Elementary School kids, and Principal Bryce for hosting us.

The Wider Neighbourhood received some love too

The second part to our Earth Day extravaganza featured a crew of SCPC volunteers hosting the Whitecaps FC office staff on a larger clean up of the Strathcona neighbourhood. Under the famous Strathcona cherry blossoms, the group split up into teams and covered a ton of ground over the 90-minute cleanup. We love the Whitecaps dedication to this community, and their appreciation for what your Strathcona CPC does day in and day out to try and do our part to make this proud community just a little bit lovelier than the day before.

The CPTED Program

Community Clean ups are all a part of our Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design Program (CPTED). This program aims to proactively reduce disorder and crime through clean ups, beautification, art projects and graffiti paint outs. To learn more about this program and others, CLICK HERE.

We Love Volunteers!

If you are interested in giving back to the community, we are always hiring new volunteers. Visit our volunteer page for more details and an application form.