Wielding a mechanical garbage picker like a hockey stick, and pulling a golf bag carrier turned-mobile-trash-bin, Cliff Brown isn’t your typical town ambassador.
Yet, that seems to be his unofficial role as he goes about his day picking up garbage along Jasper’s sidewalks. In fact, in 2011, he was recognized during the Jasper Park Chamber of Commerce’s annual ambassador awards as just that, receiving the Outstanding Community Ambassador award.
Challenged by a severe brain injury that affects his cognitive skills, Brown has spent the last five years keeping Jasper’s downtown core trash-free by regularly picking up hundreds of cigarette butts and other unsightly garbage.
“Cliff is no different from anybody else,” said Patrick Mooney, an adult outreach worker with Community Outreach Services (COS) and Brown’s personal job coach.
“He is a compassionate, kind and caring man, that’s why everyone loves him.”
A typical day for Brown starts around 8:30 a.m. at the COS building, where he checks in, grabs his radio, and picks up his tools for the day.
On this particular day, he decides to cover Patricia Street from L&W Restaurant, on the corner of Patricia Street and Hazel Avenue, to Pyramid Lake Road at the other end of town.
Focused on the task at hand, Brown moves at a steady pace making sure not to miss a thing. Part of his job includes cleaning out the town’s cigarette bins, usually found attached to public garbage cans.
Not long into his routine, Brown strikes up his first conversation of the morning in front of the L&W Restaurant. The pleasantries are short and sweet, but it’s clear from the conversation that Brown’s work is appreciated.
After making a full circle around the restaurant—including a stop to empty the employee ash tray out back—Brown crosses the street and begins making his way down the westside of Patricia Street.
Within minutes he is greeted again, but this time by a storeowner, who can’t help but heap praise on Brown’s hard work.
This scenario plays out dozens of times throughout the day, from friends stopping by to say hi to tourists asking for directions.
Brown is sharpest when the conversation moves towards questions about his injury. He recalls that day with ease.
“I was going up Mount Athabasca and I went to the top, and as I was coming down, my brother fell down a crevasse and the end of the rope came and I fell down too,” recalled Brown, who was 19 years old at the time of the accident and a first-year student at the University of Alberta.
“I blacked out,” said Brown, explaining he spent nearly a month in a coma in Edmonton.
The accident left him with severe memory loss and damaged his cognitive skills.
“It was quite a serious accident,” said Mooney, explaining how Brown spent at least 10 hours trapped in the crevasse before he was rescued.
“He was on his death bed and they didn’t think they were going to be able to revive him because he had such a serious brain injury.
“His life abruptly changed after the accident, but now there’s not a mean bone in his body.”
Despite the casual nature of his job, Brown doesn’t waste a minute, working right until the end of his shift, even doing a small part of Hazel Avenue because he has a few minutes to spare.
After returning to the COS building around 12:30 p.m., he takes out the half-full garbage bag and ties it up before placing it inside a town garbage can. Along the way, he stops to pick up a few last cigarette butts that someone had recently tossed.
As a seasonal grounds crew employee for the municipality, Brown works Monday through Thursday from 8:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m.
“It’s important he has meaningful work because it adds a sense of belonging, connection and contribution to the community,” said Mooney, adding it also allows Brown to be self-sufficient.
“Because of his condition, when he’s not working he tends to isolate [himself], so this gets him out and he meets a lot of people.”
Brown first started doing this job about five years ago thanks to a federal employment program that offered to pay half his salary for the first year.
Four years later, Brown is still at it and the municipality has taken over his entire salary.
“Everybody loves Cliff, he was born and raised here and nobody was going to take that job away from him,” said Mooney.
Paul Clarke
[email protected]
