Babji Yalamanchili, a native of India, is the organizer and founder of Keep Amarillo Clean and Keep the Panhandle Clean. With his wife, Dr. Devi Yalamanchili, the two are working their way across school districts, counties, cities, and towns in the Texas Panhandle garnering support for what every Texan should be able to get behind: keeping our state beautiful and litter-free.
In Amarillo, Babji works with elementary campuses to organize volunteer groups that meet three times a year for the duration of four hours to clean the neighborhood. Babji organizes these cleanups with the intention of teaching Amarillo’s youth the importance of properly disposing trash as a way to care for their community. Through National Clean Up Day, Earth Day, and another day he chooses in the summer, Babji seeks to facilitate special days year-round that families can get out and work together to clean the community with their neighbors.
Recently, Babji and Dr. Devi Yalamanchili met with lead counselors from local high schools to discuss strategies for engaging high school aged youth. Since many student organizations require service hours, Babji wants to coordinate with students to provide volunteer opportunities each month while also encouraging them to become assistant coordinators to inspire more students to get involved.
Denise Blanchard of Amarillo Independent School District commends his passion and says that “Babji cares so much about keeping Amarillo, the Panhandle and Texas clean, that it is hard to believe he is not a native Texan […] as much as he loves this beautiful state and wants to keep it that way!”
For the month of November, we are proud to honor Babji Yalamanchili as Keep Texas Beautiful’s Volunteer of the Month for all the work he does to engage young Texans and keep the Panhandle clean!
