MANOR — Stoughton, Manor, Arcola and Kisbey are four small rural towns in the southeast of Saskatchewan that have a friendly competition called the SMAK attack.
Taking the first letter of each town’s name, created the word SMAK and it continued from there.
This is not how it all started. It first started with Manor, Arcola and Kisbey. It was then referred to as the MAK attack, which began approximately 25 years ago.
Over the years Manor left the friendly competition for a while, as it seemed the town was not interested, according to Mayor Lucille Dunn.
Now everyone is back at it with Stoughton joining around 2015 and then it became the SMAK attack.
Each year the towns take turns being the host and this year it was Stoughton’s turn. They were responsible for finding judges and providing a lunch when the judging had been completed.
The event took place on June 28, but the preparation begins long before this date.
The criterion for the event is to keep the town clean, with grass cut, weeds pulled, not only in people’s yards, but also in the parks, along the roads and train tracks.
To have trees and shrubs trimmed, and unwanted vehicles removed. The front yards are clean and tidy, so the town looks good.
“This makes the town appealing to visitors,” said Dunn.
Judges are picked from outside of the town’s area to keep things fair. The judges came from Carlyle, and an RCMP officer, and a person from the R.M. of Moose Mountain.
The judges travel to each town and once completed came to Stoughton to have a luncheon at the Stoughton Royal Canadian Legion where 22 people gathered to hear the big decision.
As the anticipation began to rise, they were told how close the decision was.
First and last place only had a five-point spread and the judges had a challenging task as they felt the competition was tight this year.
In the end only one town can be named the winner and this year the SMAK attack winner for 2023 was Manor.
“I am very proud of my town and the people that jumped into this,” said Dunn. “I am honoured that we won.”
Each town was eager to know where they could improve for next year.
Last year’s winner was Arcola, and Mayor Scott Tessier was on hand to give the award to Lucille Dunn, Manor’s mayor.
The friendly competition will begin once again next spring with who might win the SMAK attack award this time.
