Liberty County is our home. Just as we take care of our family homes where we live, we need to take care of our community, too.

We sincerely appreciate the almost 400 volunteers each year who help to make our county cleaner and more attractive through neighborhood projects and area litter cleanups. But if you are interested in going to the next level, consider "adopting" Liberty.

Adopt Liberty is a community appearance program sponsored by Keep Liberty Beautiful in conjunction with local municipal governments. The Adopt Liberty Program serves as an umbrella for several "adopting" possibilities in our county and cities.

The idea is to create public interest and support for the care of local roads and bodies of water as well as public spaces.

I think we all seem to take better care of things when we assume ownership of them. I rented an apartment in my 20s and later we owned our own home when we married. I find I am much more conscientious about the care and maintenance of permanent residences because they are ours.

It actually seems to be the same for communities, for roads and streets, and for neighborhoods. When we take ownership of public areas, surprisingly most people seem to respect those areas better.

Adopted roads stay cleaner with less litter. Neighborhoods that are taken care are of are usually cleaner and, statistically, experience less vandalism and other crimes.

This Adopt Liberty Program promotes public involvement in the maintenance and/or improvement of adopted areas. The purpose is to care for and enhance these public areas by allowing the community to assume some personal interest and responsibility.

All major litter research studies show that litter decreases in areas where the community has taken a personal responsibility in maintaining those areas.

Evidently, it is easier for some people to litter when they think that no one cares. The Adopt Liberty Program shows that someone cares.

Who can adopt? A variety of groups and individuals have, so it can be individuals or families, neighborhood groups, civic organizations, youth groups, school groups, church groups and businesses. We have a few that have been adopted in memory and in honor of loved ones.

We want your adoption to be meaningful to you and/or your group. It may be the street you live on, or maybe a road you bike on, or the road your church is on. We want you to pick an area that matters because then you will want to care for it.

The program is simple. We ask you:

• to commit for at least a year. Most of our adoptees continue for the long term for their areas

• to try to have a cleanup at minimum once a quarter

• to submit basic information on each cleanup – date of cleanup, number of hours it took, how many volunteers were involved and how many bags of litter were collected. This information can simply be called in to 912-880-4888, emailed to keeplibertycountybeautiful@gmail.com, or texted to 912-610-3968. We try to make this as simple as possible for those who participate.

• to let us know a week ahead, if you need any supplies. We can loan safety vests, garbage bags, work gloves, water and litter pickup tools for your volunteers.

Keep Liberty Beautiful will have the road signs printed and have them installed noting your adopted spot or road location.

Volunteer efforts can have a powerful effect on our community and positive effects on the volunteers, too. We can all work together to make our community the clean and attractive home that we want it to be.

To adopt a special area with your family or group, contact Keep Liberty Beautiful at 880-4888 or klcbdirector@gmail.com.