Oct 28, 2009 - 04:30 AM

By Kristen Calis

PICKERING -- Following a successful Operation Clean Sweep launch in the spring, volunteers got their hands dirty to help out local seniors once again on Saturday.

"We want to make this a semi-annual event; one in the spring and one in the fall," said Ontario Power Generation employee and Clean Sweep organizer Arham Hasan.

The free operation, started by OPG employees, sees volunteers clean the yards of Ajax and Pickering seniors who need the physical help and turns what would normally be heavy duty work into light work seniors can easily maintain. Joe Amantea started it in the spring and Mr. Hasan took over the fall initiative.

In the spring, volunteers cleaned windows, raked lawns, trimmed tree branches, cleaned out gardens and planted flowers. This fall's operation involved a lot of weed-pulling and leaf-raking.

"We're well into fall now and some of the yards have a lot of leaves," Mr. Hasan said as he pulled and piled weeds in a Pickering backyard.

Thirty-five OPG employees helped 13 seniors who benefitted from the fall initiative. Next year, Mr. Hasan hopes even more will volunteer since 28 seniors actually called for their help this time around.

"Hopefully those guys can be covered then," he said, adding he took down the names of those they had to turn down so he can let them know about the next operation.

Eighty-one-year-old Harry Lall watched some of the volunteers pulling weeds and dead plants from his backyard.

"It's so kind of them," the Pickering resident said.

Saturday was the second time the volunteer employees attacked Mr. Lall's weeds. He was so pleased with the help he got in the spring, he called for their help when he read about the fall operation in the News Advertiser.

The senior suffers from pulmonary fibrosis and has a hard time breathing and walking, so can no longer tend to his garden like he used to.

"I can hardly walk," he said.

But he wasn't too surprised to find the helpful "young people" in Pickering. He moved to the municipality from Guyana in 1994.

"Since I came here, I find Pickering a very wonderful place to live," he said.