KISBEY - For more than 20 years, the towns of Stoughton, Manor, Arcola and Kisbey have had a friendly beautification competition called the SMAK Attack.
The name came from taking the first letter of each town to form SMAK.
This year the host town was Kisbey, and town administrator Nathalie Neal was excited about the event, as this was the first time she was to be the host.
Each town prepares for this day for weeks in advance, if possible, by cleaning up garbage, trimming trees and cleaning up the streets.
The towns' residents are asked to clean up their yards by cutting the grass and pulling weeds.
Glenda Johnston and Susan Burgess, both from Carlyle, and Pat Jackson from Kipling were this year’s judges.
Starting in Manor early on June 19, they drove each and every street in the four towns, ending with Stoughton.
Once they had done so, they returned to Kisbey to gather with the group from the towns to enjoy a cold plate luncheon.
Kisbey Mayor Kalvin Nankivell welcomed everyone but had his administrator and village employee Yurii Mondych with him. Mondych is from Uzhorde, Ukraine.
Manor Mayor Lucille Dunn and administrator Callista Johnston came and represented their village.
Arcola was well represented by Mayor Scott Tessier, administrator Cathy Burton, Elaine Hislop and town foreman Josh Sim.
Stoughton had Danielle Hoffman, the town's administrator, and Stephanie Zoer from town council and Krystle Zoer.
Johnston spoke for the three judges by saying each town looked amazing and the decision was difficult. Each community had something that stood out.
She loved seeing neighbours helping neighbours, and it was still happening when they were driving around. People waved and watched them go by.
With the weather having gale-force winds lately, they were surprised to only see one tree down and it was being cleaned up. The rain didn't dampen efforts on getting lawns mowed.
They enjoyed how this friendly rivalry brought the four small communities together and how the luncheon was such an enjoyable social.
For the judges, a clean entrance into the community was important. Was it neatly trimmed and were flowers planted? Was the grass mowed, and edging weed-whacked.
It was also mentioned that power poles had all the grass trimmed around them and the towns offered free dump days.
In the end only one town can win, and even the cookie bribes did not help one community.
Manor was last year's winner and they had to hand the trophy over to Arcola as this year's SMAK Attack champions.
The happy group thanked their employees Josh Sim and Justin Drapeau for going above and beyond to make the town look great. They also applauded all the residents that did their part.
They congratulated the other three towns for such a fun community event and making it a fun way for the communities to get clean and freshened up.
Next year Arcola will be the host for SMAK Attack, and they will see whether they get to keep the trophy for another year or if it will find a new home.
