Beautification Days are well underway in Portage la Prairie.

Pam Anderson, assistant director at the West End Day Care Centre, talks about how the community clean-up project is going for the day care.

"Now that the snow has melted again and again and again, we are finding that all kinds of treasures are showing up that have been buried under the snow. There are coffee cups and masks and just pieces of garbage that have blown in and melted away with the snow, but those (pieces of garbage) don't melt away. They don't disappear. So, our day care kids and staff have been trying to tidy up along the fence line and along the boulevard. Our parking lot gets pretty dusty and dirty, and lots of stuff flows in. So, every once in a while, we get a bag and gloves and head outside and clean."

Anderson says that the kids don't seem to mind the clean up process and jokingly comments that it's not any kind of forced labour.

"They like to get outside, and it's fun for them to be on the outside of the fenced-in yard and helping pick up the garbage. Then I think that they see how much nicer it looks after that's happened as well. It probably makes them want to do it around their own neighbourhoods." 

Anderson adds that she hopes that community members see what the daycare is doing and that inspires them to pick up a piece of garbage or two.

"There's lots of garbage cans throughout Portage. We're pretty lucky that way."

Beautification Days started on May 5 and will wrap up on May 19.