Keep Texas Beautiful Announces
2005 Governor’s Community Achievement Award Winners

Taken from the August 2005 edition of Texas Town & City

With a difference in population of more than 580,000 and a distance of 670 miles between them, the communities of Lindsay and El Paso might first appear to have little in common. However, these two cities, along with the seven other Governor’s Community Achievement Award winners share a remarkable quality; a commitment to continually improving and beautifying their communities. Each year, Keep Texas Beautiful (KTB) selects nine Texas communities for one of the most prestigious environmental awards in Texas, the Governor’s Community Achievement Award (GCAA). The 2005 GCAA winners are Lindsay, Muenster, Whitehouse, Woodway, Brownwood, Lufkin, North Richland Hills, McAllen, and El Paso. These communities were chosen for their achievements in community leadership and coordination, education, public awareness, litter prevention and cleanup, illegal dumping enforcement, beautification and property improvement, and solid waste management. For their outstanding grassroots environmental efforts, the winners receive a share of a one million dollar landscaping fund administered by the Texas Department of Transportation. “It is a pleasure to acknowledge each of these communities with this great honor,” Joanne Weik, 2004-2005 Keep Texas Beautiful President, said. “These winners are an example to every Texan of what can be accomplished when citizens, businesses, local government, and youth work together to improve the appearance of their communities. It is always amazing to see what volunteer efforts can achieve.” The GCAA program has recognized outstanding communities for 36 consecutive years, with TxDOT providing prize funds since 1985. Any city or county in Texas, regardless of size, is eligible to apply for the GCAA award. The smallest population category (under 1,000) receives $60,000 in projects; the largest population (over a quarter of a million) receives $265,000 worth of landscaping.

Lindsay
In 2004, the city council and the mayor of Lindsay noticed a strong desire by its residents to become an affiliate of Keep Texas Beautiful. With overwhelming support and financial help from the city of Lindsay, Keep Lindsay Beautiful (KLB) was soon founded. The organization didn’t wait long to tackle its first challenge; spreading the word about who they are and what they do. To educate the community of Lindsay on the organization, KLB held a kick-off “Clean-up & Green-up” event with the help of local businesses, civic groups, law enforcement officers, and individuals. At the event KLB provided informative brochures, trained all 200 people in attendance, and gave away free trash bags and seed packets. In addition to the event, KLB placed membership information on the back of city water bills and personally approached each business in Lindsay asking them to join the organization. The response was overwhelming, with 16 of the 17 businesses joining. From the start, KLB recognized the importance of including youth in the organization. They sponsored a contest in which children designed a logo for the organization, and the winning design is now used on KLB correspondence. Students have started recycling programs and participated in books swaps. The local librarian has already brought in two guest speakers to speak on environmental issues, and two teachers have been trained to teach Waste in Place. KLB has found many ways to help the community. It participated in the Don’t Mess with Texas Trash Off and adopted a highway on International Adopt-A-Highway Day. KLB hung their KTB Litter Free Event banners at track meets, prom and other local events, and they plan to promote litter free events at football games and future community gatherings. KLB has also gotten local law enforcement involved, with 100% of the department attending a workshop to receive training on illegal dumping. The support by the community has been amazing, with people pitching in wherever they can. KLB’s primary beautification effort in its first year was to install landscaping around the 100-year old Gun Club Hall, or “Schuetzenverein.” Sixteen volunteers worked 70 hours designing a landscape, tilling, and planting drought-tolerant and native plants, transforming the area into an attractive, colorful garden. The city of Lindsay is continuing to grow and change and KLB will to be there to help provide a wonderful place to live.

Muenster
Keep Muenster Beautiful (KMB) has had great success with its litter prevention, beautification, community improvement, and waste reduction programs in the past year. This fact can be attributed to the outstanding participation by individuals, youth, civic groups, businesses, law enforcement and other organizations. KMB uses brochures, newspapers, TV, radio, banners and public speeches at local organizations and chamber meetings to promote its message. KMB’s greatest support and participation came from schools and youth groups. Two Muenster I.S.D. high school teachers, four seniors and two juniors serve on the KMB board. Students and teachers work together to organize and promote campus and community cleanup and beautification projects that include cleaning the campus after every game, planting trees and flowers on all campuses, and painting park picnic tables. Students participate in Earth Day and Arbor Day Events, and KMB gives $2,000 in scholarships to deserving youth. KMB received a GE grant and sponsored a Waste in Place (WIP) workshop that trained 14 teachers. One of KMB highlights for the year was increasing the number of Adopt-A-Highway participants to eight, making 100% of the highways around Muenster adopted. To locally recognize and honor those who help KMB with its anti-litter, cleanup and beautification mission, KMB is an official certifying organization for the Presidents Volunteer Service Award. This past year, KMB diverted more than 22 million pounds of recyclables from the landfills. KMB hosted its annual “reduce, reuse, recycle, rebuy” garage sale and donated unsold items to the local Salvation Army. Muenster considers itself the “recycling capitol of Texas,” as it is home to three companies that make products from recycled materials. The community buys reusable items, recycles, makes products from recycled materials and encourages others to “close the loop” by buying items made from recycled materials. KMB finds the greatest action it can take is to lead by example, and with a terrific network of organizations, businesses, youth groups, and individuals supporting its mission, it does so throughout the community everyday.

Whitehouse
Keep Whitehouse Beautiful (KWB) is replacing litter with pride. While KWB has been successful with its programs in the past, its goal this year was to increase participation in the Don’t Mess with Texas Trash-Off. To increase awareness in the Trash-Off, KWB teams went and educated the community about its litter problem and the Trash-Off solution. These teams made personal visits to school administrators, church and youth groups, and over 115 local businesses. The response to its outreach effort far exceeded KWB’s expectations! The number of volunteers at the 2005 Trash-Off rose to 383, a 30% increase from the 2004 event, and roadside miles cleaned rose from 38 in 2004 to 63 miles in 2005. One of the most exciting results from sending the teams out was the increase in business participation. By personally talking to local business managers and owners, the number of dues paying business members increased tremendously. While the Trash-Off was a huge success, it is only a small part of the work KWB does. KWB not only works with the city code enforcement officer, recycling coordinator and community coordinator to implement litter, recycling, and solid waste management, but it has now formed a partnership with the City Planning and Zoning Commission. KWB supported a new zoning ordinance establishing tree protection guidelines for future commercial development, and at the city’s request, KWB evaluated landscape proposals for the new city hall. KWB continues to emphasize environmental and solid waste education for children in preschool through high school. Each campus participates in recycling, and the practice of reuse is common and recognized throughout the schools. The high school student body actively promotes a litter-free environment at all sports events and has held an anti-litter campaign where they distributed information and litterbags. National Honor Society students also teach elementary students hands-on, environmental math and science lessons. KWB continues to grow and promote its mission to the citizens of Whitehouse, and it is looking forward to putting to work the talent and resources of its dedicated members, old and new.

Woodway
In the late 90’s, the Woodway Beautiful Commission (WBC) led the grassroots effort to create the Carleen Bright Arboretum on a 16-acre dump site in the heart of the city. Over five years later, WBC continues to capitalize on the high visibility of this asset, which saw more than 21,000 visitors in 2004, to implement and publicize most of its beautification projects and litter prevention and recycling programs. Sponsoring two e-waste events, each held at the Arboretum, highlights WBC accomplishments this year. Responding to repeated requests from Woodway residents, WBC worked with the Harris Group and scheduled an e-waste event last July. Residents from Woodway and surrounding communities dropped off computers, monitors, televisions, radios and microwave ovens. The response to the event was so overwhelming that a second event was held in April to coincide with the Don’t Mess with Texas Trash-Off. When the two events were over, 8,844 pounds of electronic waste was diverted from going into the Waco landfill. Additional achievements for WBC this year included holding a Household Hazardous Waste Day; coordinating with local schools to plant wildflowers, recycle, and participate in Earth Week; and working with the Planning and Zoning Commission to continue making landscaping recommendations for new construction. For its single largest beautification project, WBC partnered with McLennan County Master Gardeners to create a 1,200 square foot terraced demonstration garden of Texas superstars at the arboretum. Even with all its successes, WBC felt it needed to increase public awareness. Woodway Today, a bi-monthly city newsletter, was the primary vehicle to get the WBC message out. City water bills, info magnets, bulletin boards, and free planting guides were also used to inform residents of important dates and educate them on what they can do to beautify their community. New citizen packets included WBC’s mission, goals, and programs. Events were covered by local newspapers and three television stations. With the increase in publicity and messaging, more and more residents in and around Woodway are becoming aware of the exceptional work WBC does each year.

Brownwood
Over the past few years, the recycling center in Brownwood has continually seen an increased rate in participation, but Keep Brownwood Beautiful (KBB) wanted to expand recycling education and opportunities for local citizens. KBB determined that those citizens who didn’t recycle did not do so because they thought the current facility was inconvenient to use. To address this issue, KBB and the City of Brownwood applied for and received a grant from the West Central Texas Council of Governments to purchase a mobile recycling trailer to facilitate in town recycling and location specific recycling. After the benefits of the trailer were seen, a second one was purchased. KBB works diligently to provide education and resources for youth and citizens to improve their community environment. The Tools for Schools Reuse Closet, a resource for local educator and non-profit groups to obtain donated supplies, was developed by KBB. Citizens drop off materials that can be used by youth in a variety of settings such as schools, clubs, and churches. KBB also maintains a resource and lending library for educators to use. Numerous outlets are used by KBB to get out its message of community responsibility. KBB teamed up with the city’s Sanitation Department to place a float in the Christmas Parade of Lights to promote recycling and litter prevention. At the parade, trash bags were handed out with packets about hazardous waste collection. KBB also had a booth at the Annual Home and Garden Show where they handed out litterbags, bluebonnet seeds, color books, and KBB informational brochures. KBB has many projects throughout the city and works with numerous organizations to achieve its goals. KBB promoted Litter Free Events and facilitated getting an additional 75 trashcans, a roll off dumpster, a trash compacter and the manpower to empty trashcans at the Family Day in the Park, an event attended by over 10,000 people. The successes of programs throughout Brownwood demonstrate the need and positive outcome of KBB partnering with other groups to achieve similar goals.

Lufkin
Keep Lufkin Beautiful (KLB), an affiliate of Angelina Beautiful/Clean (AB/C), continues to impress with its dedication to provide area youth and educators with projects that promote positive environmental stewardship. Students in every grade level participate in activities that teach them the importance of a clean, well-kept community. This past year, second graders decorated brown grocery sacks with “earth friendly” messages and returned them to a local grocery store to be used during Earth Week. Sixth and seventh grade students rocked out and received an earth conscious message form the group Vocal Trash, and ninth graders received “Litter Law” books that reminded the soon-to-be drivers not to toss their trash. KLB also takes advantage of opportunities outside of the classroom to educate youth and teachers on environmental and beautification issues. For a fun field trip, KLB coordinates full day Environmental Tours of the Regional Recycling Center, the county landfill, and the water plant. Each September, KLB volunteers facilitate the “Tree-rific Children’s Festival,” as part of the Texas State Forest Festival, where booths are set up to deliver environmental messages through hands on activities. KLB teams up with the Chamber Coalition for a Better Community in October to present “Drugs & Litter - Two Things that Don’t Belong in Your Community.” In addition to all the energy KLB puts in its youth education programs, it facilitates numerous cleanup and beautification activities. KLB holds two major cleanups each year, as well as two Lake and River Cleanups, an annual tire reclamation, “free days” at the local landfill, and many litter free events. Lufkin has been a Tree City USA for 15 years, and KLB promotes tree planting and preservation. One of the newest and most successful programs KLB offers is its RRR (Reduce, Recycle, Reuse) Teacher’s Warehouse. Now in its third year, the warehouse gives residents the opportunity to dispose of used and unwanted items, and gives teacher’s a chance to expand their educational opportunities without having to dig deeper into their own pockets. Last year, the warehouse collected over $50,000 in supplies and furniture. Programs like the RRR Teachers Warehouse are a testament to KLB’s commitment to continually its community.

North Richland Hills
One of the major goals of Keep North Richland Hills Beautiful (KNRHB) this year was to involve all sectors to foster community pride and identity. KNRHB and its programs now reach out to all businesses, schools, city government, and individual citizens. To get its message out to the entire community, KNRHB used the local cable television station, the city newsletter and website, presentations, flyers, and water bill inserts. KNRHB teaches environmental awareness and generates participation from local youth not only through schools, but also through other outlets such as church groups, boy scouts, girl scouts, sports clubs, and teen court. Youth groups participated in the Adopt-A-Spot program, the Trinity Trash Bash, and the Great American Cleanup. To spread its recycling message, students produced a paper recycling video that ran on NRH Citi Cable and was sent to school administrators. KNRHB partnered with the Northeast Environmental Team (NEET) to present the Enviro Fair to 650 fifth graders and 15 teachers. To make individual residents aware of KNRHB programs, the organization placed flyers and calendars at local businesses, the library and senior citizen centers. KNRHB visited the NRH Fire Department Open House and made public presentations to clubs and at City Council meetings. Signage also became a big part of KNRHB’s campaign, with 10 KTB affiliate signs strategically placed on major thoroughfares and 14 air pollution signs displayed around town. KNRHB marketed directly to residents in apartment complexes to let them know about community wide cleanups when they discovered these residents did not have a way to dispose of large, bulky items. One of KNRHB’s newest endeavors is to help give pride of ownership back to citizens who can not afford to maintain their property. KNRHB joined the volunteer NRH Neighborhood Initiative Program (NIP) to proactively involve citizens in improving their neighborhoods. NIP serves to identify the needs of the neighborhoods, provide minor home repair and cleanup on houses in violation of city ordinances. Since its inception, volunteers from KNRHB, other non-profits, business, and local groups have completed 65 projects. KNRHB has seen the fruits of its labor this year and will continue to educate and involve every resident in improving the community environment of North Richland Hills.

McAllen
Citizens and visitors alike often comment, “What a clean city!” when speaking of McAllen, but the beauty does not come without its share of hard work and dedication. Keep McAllen Beautiful (KMB) partners with the city, schools, civic groups, and businesses to conduct litter prevention, beautification, and community improvement projects. KMB is seeing the benefit of its efforts as more and more citizens are taking pride in where they live and doing their part to keep it clean. KMB is involved with all the schools in McAllen I.S.D. as well as other youth organizations and clubs. Along with its work to promote litter prevention and waste handling, KMB has helped establish a campus beautification program in which parents and children pick up litter, paint murals, and create greener landscapes, butterfly gardens, nature paths, and vegetable gardens. Schools can apply to receive an award and a cash prize, an incentive that has encouraged many schools to organize litter patrol groups. One of the latest undertakings by KMB is Project Clean Neighborhood, a program that works with home owners associations so citizens can establish cleanups at no cost to them. The goal of the project is to instill in residents a desire for a clean, beautiful city to live in without having to rely on volunteers to cleanup for them. A large incentive for many of them is that the program offers amnesty to disposal fees. KMB works closely with code enforcement officers to ensure citizens are aware of illegal dumping. Working along with the Traffic & Sign Department, KMB requested “Dumping is Illegal” signs be placed in areas where repeat offenses occur. The city has noticed that once debris is removed and signs are placed, the areas remain clean. The city also has a “graffiti crew” to help wipe out graffiti, and KMB sponsors Paint McAllen Beautiful, a program that helps paint homes of elderly, low income, or disabled residents. McAllen notices the hard work of its citizens and gives out awards to civic groups, businesses, schools, and individual volunteers who participate in programs such as the Great American Cleanup and the Don’t Mess with Texas Trash-Off. And while this recognition is nice, the citizens of McAllen are realizing the true reward is the benefit of living in a clean and beautiful city.

El Paso
Education is the cornerstone of Keep El Paso Beautiful’s (KEPB) success and where it makes its greatest investment. Educating the children of El Paso about the devastating and long-term effects that litter has on their community will have a huge impact on the future of the city. With a grant from Paso Del Norte Health Foundation, KEPB was able to implement the Waste in Place (WIP) curriculum in its schools, and KEPB is now translating WIP into Spanish. KEPB partners with nine local school districts and the University of Texas El Paso and has delivered almost 300 school presentations, with 20% being bilingual. Certificates of appreciation are also issued to students who participate in cleanups, litter prevention, graffiti prevention and removal, and beautification projects. Awareness is KEPB’s key to educating the community, mobilizing volunteers, and calling the public to action, and they have a great tool to get out their message. The organization’s Executive Director hosts a local cooking show and wears a KEPB “Recipe to a Beautiful City” apron and shares a “secret to a beautiful city” along with her latest tasty recipe. KEPB uses television, radio and newspapers to reach citizens on its latest programs and events. Along with a great educational program, KEPB offers wonderful cleanup opportunities. The KEPB Tool Shed is its latest tool to empower citizens to take personal responsibility for their community environment. The shed houses rakes, hoes, bags, gloves, brooms, and more, which is all available on a loaner basis. There are eight sheds up and running, all located at city fire stations. KEPB and its partners also hosted four major cleanups this year: Great American Cleanup, Gift to the River, Gift to the Mountain, and El Paso Pride Day. With KEPB adding new programs, building strong partnerships and increasing education, the future looks bright in El Paso.