For 12 weeks, every Saturday at 7 p.m. the residents of Quance Avenue, in Saskatoon’s Greystone Heights neighbourhood, have gathered for a ‘clang and bang.’
It’s a tradition in which the neighbours banged pots and pans together to honour front-line workers.
What began as just a few neighbours on Quance Avenue spread to many streets throughout Greystone, making noise every Saturday night while gathering donations for the Saskatoon Food Bank.
This past Saturday marked the final clang and bang, featuring a full-blown parade that wound its way throughout the neighbourhood.
“You’ve got flags fluttering on top of the lead vehicle and you’ve got the care clubs bringing their best wheels,” Quance Avenue resident Mike Raine said.
“People are pulling up and they don’t know what to do with their vehicle because they have to stop. They want to hand over a cheque, they want to hand out the window a bag of groceries.”
In each of the 12 clang and bangs the Greystone collective honoured different groups of frontline workers, from the Saskatoon Fire Department, to STARS air ambulance, to the Ronald McDonald House.
For Saturday’s finale, the group chose to celebrate both St. Paul’s Hospital and the Prairie Hospice Society.
“It’s always nice to be recognized,” St. Paul’s executive director Tracy Muggli said.
“But when you learn that people are literally going to be coming out of their houses, every house on the street, and start banging on pots and pans as you drive by, it’s pretty humbling.”
“We had a lot of volunteers out here tonight being recognized,” Prairie Hospice Society volunteer coordinator Sheila Morgan said. “They were so overwhelmed to be so appreciated during this pandemic.”
The efforts of the clang and bang have made a lasting impact on those they honoured, and of course the Saskatoon Food Bank. However, the residents, too, will remember their clang and bang celebrations for many years to come.
“In the middle of all of the banging, the 105 decibels of bang, bang, bang… you just kind of choke it back,” Raine said. “I mean, because, that’s real for us because you have to think, this is my home.
“You measure success in this life by how much change you can make, and we made some change. It may be the last night, but we made some change and we’re very proud of the way it turned out.
“We’re even more proud of the people that are around us.”
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