Coordinated by The City of Calgary Parks department, the program began in 1984 with 137 volunteers in 40 parks. Today, the program boasts thousands of volunteers looking after more than 400 designated areas. Volunteers take on duties such as picking up litter, pulling weeds, painting playground equipment and watching for things like vandalism, graffiti and dogs in ‘no dog’ zones.

In addition to all of these invaluable volunteers, “corporate sponsorship really helps us enhance programs like this”, says Heather MacKay, sponsorship coordinator with the Parks department. This spring, Cardel Homes, always one of Calgary’s leading corporate citizens, donated a total of $150,000, to be used over the next three years, to the Adopt-a-Park program.