By Nick Dube

Local resident cleaning up the community

Nov 7, 2025 | 5:08 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Nathan Hughes has called Prince George home for just over two months and one of the first things he noticed was all the garbage piling up in public spaces.. It’s something he found distracting and rather than complain about it, he took matters into his own hands.

“I moved here a couple of months ago and I saw that there’s kind of this garbage everywhere. I figured I want to live in a cleaner city and I want to be able to walk my dog without it going to pick up dirty needles or eating trash. I walk by elementary schools, and I see that the kids are playing on a playground covered in garbage and I don’t want that for me. I don’t have kids, but I wouldn’t want that for my kids and so all of that together, I just I want a cleaner space.” said Hughes.

Nathan’s month long campaign has led to the cleanup of over a dozen areas around Prince George including the entirety of 10th avenue, Duchess Park and Harwin Elementary.Nathan’s efforts started getting noticed on social media when he started asking the online community where he should clean up next. The public responded positively as Nathan has received a lot of support and thanks for his work.

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“So people are giving me a lot of garbage bags and some some tongs and some gloves so it’s really nice. I really appreciate the support. The problem with getting people to come out and help me out physically is I do it on a limb a lot of the time, because I’ll see the problem and deal with it right now, and people need a lot more notice than that.” said Hughes.

Nathan’s efforts have not gone unnoticed.

“When I had the opportunity alongside Councilor Ramsey and Councilor Sampson to bring forward the notice of motion about the medal of good citizenship for the community. It was it was people like Nathan that we want to highlight, community residents who just continue to go above and beyond to help make Prince George a great place to call home.” said Prince George City Councillor Tim Bennett.

Up next Nathan plans to finish cleaning 5th avenue and central before the first snowfall of the year.