Winter may be here for a little longer but signs of Spring are already popping up.
The first stages of growing a new Communities In Bloom committee in Springhill are germinating with like-minded people who in their own ways endeavour to keep the community looking its best.
“I was talking to different groups and organizations and different citizens in Springhill and we were all kind of trying to beautify the downtown,” Cumberland County Councillor Maryanne Jackson said. “Nobody had any funding but everybody was trying their best. I thought what an opportunity to have a coordinated effort.”
Communities In Bloom, Jackson said, is more than just flowers. It includes environment, community cleanups, and tidiness and having a community look its best.
Information sessions were held in 2017 about revitalizing Communities In Bloom’s presence in Springhill, with members of the Pugwash group visiting to share their experiences. A community clean-up prior to Remembrance Day followed before the recent Jan. 16 meeting.
Moving forward, Jackson says there are opportunities to be both part of the committee as well as volunteering for community projects according to the public’s interest and participation levels.
“We had about 25 people who were interested in Communities In Bloom… we’ve had about 20 people at our first information session and I’ve had people since contact me interested in doing projects but they don’t necessarily want to do meetings, so they are going to be volunteers,” Jackson said. “You don’t have to come to the meetings if you don’t want to because we do realize there are volunteers who just like to get out and get their hands dirty, which is just great, too.”
The group will spend the winter preparing applications for a not-for-profit status, registering with Communities In Bloom national office and seek out potential funding for summer students. In the meantime, one of the community’s own business has given the budding group a head start.
Springhill, Oxford and Parrsboro Tim Horton franchise owner Bud Anderson presented the group with its first donation through the annual Smile Cookie campaign, which directs every $1 made from cookie sales to local groups and organizations.
“I think the first year we started with eight or nine hundred cookies that we sold. Things have increased every year with our locations as well as all Tim Hortons store. This year we sold over 4,600,” Anderson said.
Communities in Bloom is a Canadian non-profit organization committed to fostering civic pride, environmental responsibility, and beautification through community involvement and the challenge of a national program, with focus on enhancing green spaces in communities.
To learn more visit http://www.communitiesinbloom.ca.
