Friday, October 13 is the last day for Smithereens to share their input via a mail-in survey on how to shape the next 10 years of Smithers' Parks and Recreation Master Plan.

Led by an Alberta company called RC Strategies that specializes in recreation, parks, trails, tourism and cultural planning, the town is engaging individuals as well as community groups and organizations to share their input on how to improve recreation in Smithers.

Based on the the town's online directory, it doesn't look like there are many sport or arts organizations in Smithers. If someone were to search online for these resources, they might assume few organizations exist, which is not the case, according to a web search that CICK did. For example, the Valley Youth Fiddlers is a 25-year running organization in the town. And The Bulkley Valley Folk Music Festival (BVFMS) not only put on a massive annual 3-day festival, they also run annual "guitar camps" for youth and adults, as well as monthly coffeehouses for new and established musicians.

Will George, the town Community Services Director told CICK News "When folks think of parks and recreation you might think just of our local baseball team or a basketball team but what we're looking for is this plan to incorporate all of the different elements of recreation. We see recreation and culture being intertwined into our different amenities that we provide here."

A Task Force has been created to reflect the diverse cultural, arts, and sport organizations in Smithers which will gather feedback from their group members, and present to council to offer suggestions for the Master Plan's direction.

"The task force was selected through recommendations to council, and our consultant team RC Strategies has pulled best case practices from municipalities. That task force consists of 15 members, individuals representing different community interests and experiences", Will George told CICK. "So we have a council representative on the task force, individuals from the Wet'suwet'en First Nations, we have individuals from Northern Health, the School District, Tourism Smithers, Chamber of Commerce, and then community members at large. So there's about 15 members there representing a wide variety of organizations and the community at whole here."

If as a Smithers' resident you have not shared your input, tomorrow is the last day to do so online. Use this link to fill out the online survey.

Listen to our interview with Community Services Director Will George below.