The call for volunteers to help out with strawberry cleaning has gone out in LaSalle.
Ahead of this year's Strawberry Festival, officials say volunteers are needed to help clean strawberries on Wednesday, June 5, beginning at 6 p.m. at the Event Centre on Front Road.
Parking is available at the site by entering the parking lot from Bouffard Road, and additional parking spaces are available at the Riverdance building which is a short walk to the Event Centre.
No pets will be permitted, service dogs only.
Scott Bisson, Manager of Culture and Recreation for the Town of LaSalle, says they're asking anyone who'd have a couple of hours to spare to come out.
"There's no advance registration required, so anyone is just welcome to show up and we welcome anyone who is willing to come. We especially welcome the high school students because we know a lot of students are looking for volunteer hours and we will sign their forms," he said.
Bisson says they order about 300 flats of strawberries each June for the festival, which are grown locally at Raymont's Berries in Cottam.
"We'll have 300 flats of strawberries for the weekend. We don't clean all of them that very first day, we do enough to get us started, and then our volunteers from the Life After 50 club who operate the strawberry and ice cream tent sort of continue on the job throughout the weekend."
He says the strawberry festival is really the kickoff to the summer in LaSalle.
"As we approach June I think everyone in the community knows that it's Strawberry Festival time. We've been updating all of our websites with all of the information because people are starting to call already and ask for information. If people just visit the Town of LaSalle website there's a Strawberry Festival page that's linked right on the homescreen where you can find all the information you need," he said.
The LaSalle Strawberry Festival takes place from Thursday, June 6 to Sunday, June 9 at the Vollmer Recreation Complex.