A call for volunteers to help prepare for the annual LaSalle Strawberry Festival.
Volunteers are need to help clean strawberries that will be served during the festival.
Anyone who is interested is being asked to gather at the LaSalle Event Centre at 970 Front Road on Wednesday, June 7 at 6 p.m.
Scott Bisson, Manager of Culture and Recreation, says the more volunteers, the better.
He says advanced registration is not required.
"Last year we had hundreds of volunteers come out to the fire department, we filled the fire department's bay," he says. "We'll take as many people interested in coming out. Any high school volunteers, we'd be more than willing to sign their community service hours as well."
Bisson says people need to help clean and cut the 300 flats of strawberries which are grown locally at Raymont's Berries in Cottam.
"We're not going to clean them all and cut them all but it gets us a good start for the first day or two," he says. "Volunteers are going to come wash strawberries, cut the stems off the top and get us all loaded back up and ready to bring over to the Strawberry Festival the next day."
Bisson says they usually go through all 300 flats of strawberries during the festival.
"Depending on the size of the berry, we're probably anywhere between 86,000 and 130,000 total berries over 300 flats, so that's a lot of strawberries," he adds.
The LaSalle Strawberry Festival takes place from Thursday, June 8 to Sunday, June 11 at the Vollmer Recreation Complex, 2121 Laurier Parkway.
Strawberries and ice cream can be purchased during the festival at the strawberries and ice cream tent run by volunteers of Life After Fifty.
Parking for the volunteers is available at the Event Centre by entering the parking lot from Bouffard Road. Additional parking spaces are available at the Riverdance building which is a short walk to the Event Centre. Guests can be dropped off at the Event Centre before parking. For more information email events@lasalle.ca or call 519-969-7771.