Chinook's Meadowlark and junior high students complete second "new" Sparkle Clean-up event

A group of Chinook's Meadowlark and Junior High students recently joined the Chinook Lions to celebrate a second replay of a nearly century old event in the town. Last week classes from kindergarten to junior high picked up litter on selected city streets in Chinook. Students got to experience firsthand what happens when trash is not properly discarded.

Chinook's town clean-up efforts date back nearly a century

A few weeks before October 21, 1925, the official date of the startup and dedication of the new sugar beet plant east of town, the Chinook Lions hosted city officials at the club's then weekly meeting. At that meeting the Lions Club posed a plan to encourage everyone in town to clean up their properties to make a good impression on the visitors that would be coming to town. The Lions Club agreed to tidy up around the train depot since that was the place most visitors outside the area would first see the town. The clean-up and dedication were a big success as after the event visitors sent letters to the local newspaper congratulating the town for a great dedication event and a tidy, attractive town.

Several decades later, the exact year is not clear, the Sparkle Clean-up annual cleanup began. The clean-up was promoted by the Chinook Area Chamber of Commerce. The "new" clean-up program involved the schools as well as businesses and community clubs. One activity was a cookout to feed the volunteers who did the clean-up. While it was hard to get the exact timing of when the Sparkle Clean-up program restarted, it was last held around 2012.

The 2024 Sparkle Clean-up campaign

The 2024 clean-up was held on May 15 and 16. As luck would have it those two days dawned with a break in what had been some wet and windy weather. Cleanup crews were ready equipped with disposable gloves for the students and maps for the teachers showing the assigned cleanup areas. Getting those disposable gloves on the younger students was a bit of a challenge according to the teachers.

Each class left the school with a map in hand showing where they were to pick up litter. The younger kids were assigned smaller areas closer to the school and the junior high students had larger and busier areas. As the students left Meadowlark there were Lions club members on hand urging the kids to be successful and safe in their cleanup efforts. The kids were excited. After about an hour the classes began to return for the scheduled school lunches. Each class deposited its garbage bag of litter near the school entrance before they headed in to wash hands for lunch.

The cost of the event was underwritten by several local businesses. Each student got a coupon for an ice cream cone redeemable at the Creamery, underwritten by the Creamery and the Lions Club. Students also received a commemorative wrist band, provided by Treasure State Title here in Chinook.

Hopefully a Sparkle Clean-up program will be held again next year, commemorating a century since local Lions helped launch the original campaign in 1925. Next year, in May, 2025, will also be the centennial of the founding of the Chinook Lions Club. The Chinook club was the third Lions Club to be formed and still operating in Montana. The Club thanks all those who donated to support the effort, the teachers and students who did the clean-up, school staff who helped schedule the event and other volunteers who helped make the event a success.