Members of the Medicine Hat Skateboard Association clean up trash at Kin Coulee Park (Tiffany Goodwein/CHATNewsToday)

By Tiffany Goodwein

Smile Sunday

Medicine Hat Skateboard Association helps clean up parks

Apr 24, 2022 | 9:20 AM

MEDICINE HAT, AB– Local kids and members of the Medicine Hat Skateboard Association traded in their skateboards for garbage bags to help make the city a cleaner place.

Starting off at the Inland Skatepark, approximately 20 kids branched off to pick up trash in the area.

” For the past five years we have been coming out of the skatepark and giving it a real good clean, trying to get as much trash as possible because it gets pretty littered up here, and we want to make it clean and make it a safe environment for everyone,” said Joshua Jessop of the Medicine Hat Skateboard Association.

While on the hunt, the kids found some common findings .

” During hot days a lot of guys like to go get slushies or polar pops all those kind of drinks so you will find a lot of those cups and straws laying around. Or a lot of bottle caps and empty bottles.”

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But there were also some unusual discoveries, like a series of car tires, shoelaces, and broken skateboard pieces.

The clean up is just one of many acts of volunteerism members of the Medicine Hat Skateboard Association take part in. The group of kids regularly lend a hand at organizations like The Mustard Seed, the Medicine Hat Women’s Shelter, and Prairie Gleaners, as a way to give back.

” You can’t just take, and take and take and expect others to give to you. You have to give back in order to receive and so we find that it is healthy to give back to people,” Jessop said.

“By us starting it we are hoping that it will be a domino effect,” he said.