Melfort Communities in Bloom was declared the winner of the Land Reclamation award for the south side sport courts during the 2020 virtual awards. (Facebook/Melfort Communities in Bloom)
Communities in Bloom

Melfort Communities in Bloom claim two outstanding achievement awards

Oct 13, 2020 | 12:43 PM

Melfort Communities in Bloom (CIB) continues to be recognized for the work it does in the city.

The 2020 Communities in Bloom awards were distributed virtually last week with the Melfort group being declared winners of two of the 11 outstanding achievement awards.

One was in recognition of the land reclamation for the south side sports courts according to Peggy George with Melfort CIB.

“It’s about taking land that is unusable as it is, environmentally not safe for a lot of things,” George said. “That land used to be the home for an auto-body shop so the soil needed to be cleaned and tested to make it safe but you can put stuff on top, like sport courts.”

She said the courts have been an excellent addition to the south side of Melfort and are well used by families and groups.

Melfort CIB also won the Community of Gardeners Award for the work and improvements that are still happening at the community garden.

“The focus was on what we have done out there and how the community was perceiving it,” George said.

Melfort Communities in Bloom was declared the winner of the Community of Gardeners award at the 2020 virtual awards. (Facebook/Melfort Communities in Bloom)

There were a lot of new people that got garden spaces including one woman that sponsored two garden beds for someone else. The City of Melfort also adopted three beds, administration took care of the beds and then harvested them, with all of the produce being donated to the Melfort Food Bank.

This year looked different in not competing against other communities in population categories. The provincial and national judges also did not visit the community this year.

The group was able to attend webinars with the national judges and get tips on what they look for when they visit a community.

Normally, CIB is able to do bake sales and barbecues to fundraise for their efforts but that was not possible this year. Regardless, the improvements still continued.

“We usually send out letters asking for sponsorships but this year was so unknown for businesses so we didn’t do that either,” George said. “We did have some private donations because they appreciate the work we do.”

With the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, the group formulated a plan to split into pairs and into certain areas instead of hosting the usual work bees.

“Our budget for flowers and soil is usually around $5,000 to $6,000 so we had to really cut down on amount and size of plants,” George said.

The community did not disappoint though, with the local greenhouses including Canadian Tire, Wrights Greenhouses, and George Home Hardware making donations and giving discounts.

“It just really takes us all to pitch in and do these things,” George said.

Heading into the winter months, there is some work done by the group as well. Memorial Garden is typically decorated with Christmas lights and decorations.

“The people of Melfort are passionate about their yards and looking out for their neighbours and when that happens, everybody wins,” she said.

angie.rolheiser@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @Angie_Rolheiser

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