Keeping Liberty beautiful is supposed to be a group effort.  I used to feel a sense of ownership — or actually, a lonely sense of responsibility — when I would see a pile of litter that someone had tossed on the side of the road because, I guess, they wanted their car to be clean.

I would get that same sad feeling when I would see garbage blowing out of a truck because, I guess, the driver was in too big a hurry to secure the truck load.  

The reality is, though, that keeping Liberty beautiful is everyone’s responsibility. We live, work and raise our families here. Surely we want this community to be the cleanest and most attractive place it can be.  

Thankfully, there are many local citizens who get that same troubled feeling when we see our community marred by the actions of thoughtless folks who either live or travel through here.  We want to say thank you to the more than 2,000 volunteers who have helped with a variety of activities during this last fiscal year. You have made a difference.

As our small way of saying thanks, we want to invite you to an appreciation event in coordination with the May Business After Hours.  We are sponsoring this event with the Liberty County Chamber of Commerce because many volunteers are members of the business community, but all of our volunteers are invited to join us for a casual evening of food, fun and fellowship. The event is from 5 p.m.-7 p.m. Thursday, May 24, at the Hinesville Area Arts Council Gallery, 102 Commerce St.

The three main missions of Keep Liberty Beautiful are:

• to prevent and eradicate litter to protect our physical environment and our waterways as well as the wildlife that lives with us;

• to promote recycling and reuse resources so they are conserved and the amount of waste accumulating in landfills is reduced;

• to promote improvement and beautification of a community that we call home.

It takes all of us to be involved and active in making that happen. The 2,000-plus volunteers are a small part of our population. We need everyone involved to really create major changes.  Those volunteers have been busy; here are some of the things they have done this year:

• plant hundreds of trees for Arbor Day

• clean more than 100 miles of roadways and green spaces  

• adopt special areas for cleanups

• recycle items like paper, plastics and aluminum and steel cans, glass, newspapers and magazines

• collect hundreds of shoes for those in need

• collect thousands of phonebooks to recycle

• hold special cleanups to protect the quality of our local waters for Rivers Alive

• clean up the beach at St Catherine’s Island

• help with educational events in schools and our communities

• help to provide a celebration for Earth Day

• recycle hundreds of Christmas trees for mulch

• develop educational materials and activities to make taking care of resources a fun and memorable thing to do

• work on beautification projects to make our neighborhoods neat, creating attractive businesses worthy of awards and recognition.

A tremendous amount of work has been accomplished by these folks this year. Volunteers worked tirelessly to do these things because they want to make a difference. Many feel Liberty County will only thrive when we are all committed to making it the best it can be.

There still is much that can be done to improve our home. How about you?  Are you ready to make a difference where you live?  Contact Keep Liberty Beautiful today at 880-4888 or klcb@coastalnow.net  to find out how to get involved.

This is your home. It is up to all of us to join these 2,000 committed volunteers and grow the kind of community that we all want to have.