Carrollton’s Great American Cleanup 2008/Don’t Mess With Texas Trash-Off is Saturday, April 19

by Minnie Payne

CARROLLTON — Carrollton residents and others who wish to join in, you have an opportunity to make your city more beautiful on Saturday, April 19 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

You’ll be welcomed in the back parking lot of city hall, 1945 E. Jackson Street at 9 a.m. when you pick up your trash bags, gloves, t-shirts and assigned area map or indicate where you want to clean. After dispersing, you’ll clean your assigned area and bring your trash back to city hall to be counted, unless it’s too large to move in which case a specific location will be needed for the city to pick up. Give up your trash, get freebies from sponsors, play an environmental game, eat free hotdogs and chips, and celebrate your accomplishments.

Carrollton’s Great American Cleanup 2008/Don’t Mess with Texas Trash-Off are sponsored by Keep Carrollton Beautiful, an affiliate of Keep Texas Beautiful and part of the Keep America Beautiful system.

Keep America Beautiful Great American Cleanup, the nation’s largest community improvement program, is held annually from March 1 through May 31, and involves an estimated 2.8 million volunteers and attendees. The hardworking volunteers donated more than 7.7 million hours in 2007 to clean, beautify and improve more than 17,000 communities during more than 30,000 events in all 50 states and beyond.

Nationally, last year’s Great American Cleanup netted 200 million pounds of litter and debris; planted 4.6 million trees, flowers and bulbs; cleaned 178,000 miles or roads, streets and highways; and diverted more than 70.6 million plastic bottles and more than 2.2 million scrap tires from the waste stream.

In 2007, 1,069 Keep Carrollton Beautiful volunteers spent 4,840 hours collecting 16,850 pounds of litter and debris from greenbelts, streets, parks, rivers and shorelines in Carrollton.

Keep Carrollton Beautiful is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to creating community in Carrollton and was founded by Sharon Gammon Goddard, Executive Director, in January 2004 as an educational and charitable organization.

“We are very proud that his is our fifth Great American Cleanup participation,” said Goddard. “This year it will be even more important to help clean our community due to the recent storms.

“I personally hope everyone – neighborhoods, service organizations, and individuals – will take this opportunity to come join us.”

The mission of Keep Carrollton Beautiful is “To empower Carrollton to enhance our community environment.”

Keep Texas Beautiful originated in 1967, first known as the “Beautify Texas Council.” Texas was preparing for the Hemisfair and more than 16 million tourists were expected to visit the state. Representatives from diverse entities, including the State Department of Highways and Public Transportation, decided that Texas cities and highways should be cleaned, so that visitors would see a clean, beautiful state. To accomplish this, the group created a non-profit educational corporation, supported totally by membership dues, known as the “Beautify Texas Council.” For a time, the Council became part of the Governor’s office.

Because local volunteers accomplished so much and showed great interest in beautifying their communities and highways, the Beautify Texas Council continued to support communities in their beautification efforts even after Hemisfair. By 1968, the Council had supplied almost every Texas town with information on how to improve their city’s appearance. In 1984, the Beautify Texas Council officially became Keep Texas Beautiful, Inc., and a state affiliate of Keep America Beautiful.

Keep Texas Beautiful mission is: “To educate and engage Texans to take responsibility for improving their community environment.” Its vision is: “To make Texas the cleanest, most beautiful state in the nation.”

Keep America Beautiful, Inc., founded in 1953, is the nation’s largest volunteer-based community action organization dedicated to litter and graffiti prevention, beautification, waste minimization and community improvement. Millions of volunteers each year are involved in hands-on community improvement activities, where they learn how to take personal responsibility for improving their local community environments and their quality of life.

Keep America Beautiful mission is: “To engage individuals to take greater responsibility for improving their community environments.”

Julie Poe was an original board member of Keep Carrollton Beautiful and currently serves as a volunteer.

“It gives me great pleasure to help people become aware of all the small and large things they can do to help the environment,” she said.