Chilliwack Adopt-A-Road Program

Chilliwack is an obscenely beautiful city. Graced with soaring mountains, pastoral fields, crystalline lakes and rivers – the environment around us is the envy of many. The Wack is an attractive playground for people from around the world, and they come here to frolic in our backyard. Tourism Chilliwack’s billboards along Highway 1 beckon motorists to come and play in the “great outside” and depict the pristine eco-wonderland that surrounds us.

So why is our city so dirty?

A quick drive down any of the major roadways in the city is telling. Litter is strewn along the sidewalks and curbs. Plastic bags blow through the air like angry ghosts.  Lonely take-out coffee cups roll head-long under the wheels of passing cars. Blackberry brambles obscure strange and bothersome leavings (a rusted shopping cart full of leaking bottles of oil, anyone?) Who is responsible for picking up the orphaned packaging? Not all of the land is public, nor subject to municipal tending by city workers. Where is our civic pride or even plain old common sense and decency?

Enter the Chilliwack Adopt-A-Road Program.

This innovative call-to-action allows local non-profits, community groups and corporations to partner with the City, and elect to take on the responsibility for the trash removal and beautification of a designated street. Volunteers from the adoptive organization commit to a minimum of four (4) public clean-up events in a calendar year. They supply the manpower needed to take out the trash. The City of Chilliwack, in turn, provides the group with training in safety and handling procedures, reflective vests, garbage/recycling bags, and garbage grabbers. Signage at the beginning and end of the street is erected by the city, advising passers-by of the commitment and contribution of the group that has given it’s time and effort to making the Adopt-a-Road program work. This partnership ensures that the area is effectively de-junked, and fosters a deep sense of responsibility in the people that have toiled to make it clean once more.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Adopt-A-Road program, or to find out if there is a group in your area that has stepped up to the plate, get in touch with the City of Chilliwack Engineering Department at 604-793-2907. If we all pitch in, pick it up, and put it away, this city can truly sparkle like the gem in the wilderness that it is.