There are hopes at North Battleford City Hall to keep the volunteer spirit going well beyond the snow-shoveling season.
During the winter months, the city regularly recognizes “Snow Angels” who help clean their neighbours’ sidewalks during the winter months. The volunteers are recognized with letters from the city and one recipient is picked in a draw to receive a $50 gift card.
But that program only lasts while there is snow on the ground. With snow-shoveling season over, talk at City Hall has moved towards possibly putting in place a program that could be much like the Snow Angels, but recognize neighborhood volunteers year-round.
What it would look like remains to be seen. One idea floated at their council meeting on Monday was to revive the “Neighbourhood Champion” program, which had been introduced at the tail end of Jim Puffalt’s time as city manager in 2018. It was an extension of the “Eyes that Care” program where people could nominate neighbours who watched out for their property and notify them about such things as unlocked vehicles or doors, or had looked after their property while on vacation.
Volunteers were then recognized by the city and a $50 gift card was awarded, but the program was discontinued due to staff changes and declining participation. Administration suggested that program could be brought back, with the possibility of widening the program and making the awards bi-monthly.
But councillor Kelli Hawtin was unimpressed by that idea, saying “I don’t think this is very exciting”.
In particular, she wanted to see something that would encourage participation and where people took “ownership”.
Her idea was to include the “Better Together” group who had made a presentation at the previous meeting in March. That was the group that had T-shirts encouraging togetherness, with a view to improve a sense of well-being, decrease loneliness and enhance social cohesion.
Hawtin saw an opportunity to partner up with them as sort of a “Better Together Neighbours” initiative, and wanted to see a “very energetic program that really encourages people to want to do good things - not just have the same maybe 12 people participating month to month to get swim passes.”
Mayor David Gillan was supportive of the idea of making Better Together “bigger” and “more of a fabric of the community.”
“Just wearing shirts is not enough — you’ve got to have to live it, somehow,” said Gillan. “It’s got to be more than just the shirts — people have to care about what the shirts mean.”
No final decisions were made at the meeting on the issue. The indication at the meeting is the city intends to keep exploring the idea of such a program that could run year-round, which could include possibly forming a partnership with Better Together.
