For just the third time in 46 years, the Rotary Greenathon has been cancelled. The annual Grande Prairie park clean-up event was set to be held on Saturday but won’t now because of the weather. Greenathon Committee Co-Chair Dawn Miller says it was a hard call to make.
“After looking at the weather forecast… at some point, you have to say this isn’t going to be good for the kids [and] the volunteers; it was just showing too much snow and there’s nothing worse than kids out there cold, tired [and] wet.”
The event is always held on the first Saturday in May. It enlists the help of 5th and 6th graders from local schools and sends them to clean local parks for the morning.
On May 3rd, Grande Prairie and the surrounding areas were put under a snowfall warning. Officials say places that have already seen up to 10 cm fall can expect another five to 10 cm of snow through Friday and into Saturday morning. Because of that, Miller says the event will not be rescheduled this year.
“Once we cancel it because we would have to get all new permission slips and all the logistics of that again if we have to cancel we just wait till the next year.”
Around 400 students were scheduled to take part in this year’s event on May 4th.