SURREY Mayor Doug McCallum joined over 650 students, parents and teachers from Walnut Road Elementary School on Friday for a Kindness to Earth clean-up event, celebrating Surrey’s city-wide Love Where You Live clean-up initiative.

“Yesterday’s tremendous turnout at Walnut Road Elementary shows how much can be accomplished when we work together to keep our city clean and beautiful,” said McCallum on Saturday. “I want to commend and thank all the students, parents and teachers who rose to the challenge to help beautify their school and immediate neighborhood. It is this lead by example approach that will make the city-wide Love Where You Live campaign a success.”

Walnut Road Elementary School is a Lend-a-Hand school, which is an ongoing partnership program between the City and the Surrey School District, where students participate in the beautification of their parks by picking up litter. With McCallum’s launch of the inaugural Love Where You Live campaign earlier this week, Walnut Road Elementary’s Kindness Committee organized the event to show their support of the initiative, running now through October 31.

During the event, McCallum emphasized that small actions can leave a big impact, which was demonstrated with over 50 bags of garbage being removed from school grounds and surrounding areas. The students, parents and teachers were applauded for their leadership in keeping their school grounds clean and welcoming, and McCallum encouraged other schools to get involved.

“I want to encourage all schools in Surrey to follow the example set at Walnut Road Elementary,” said McCallum. “I challenge you to meet or beat the high bar that has been set at yesterday’s clean-up event.”

For more information about Love Where You Live, visit surrey.ca/lovewhereyoulive