Dr. Karen Bell
Keep Liberty Beautiful
This past Friday, Keep Liberty Beautiful celebrated Earth Day! It was hot, but a great day to learn how to protect the only planet we have. If you were able to get a free tree, plant in a cup flower or vegetable seeds, or build a mobile garden, please take photos and post them to our Facebook page or email them to us. We would love to see where they end up at and show them off.
Liberty County, you can still help protect our planet on April 27! The Countywide Great American Cleanup for Liberty County is waiting for your participation. This is when we come together as a community to clean and beautify our area by removing litter and debris from roadsides, highways, shorelines, and waterways.
Keep America Beautiful, the nation’s leading environmental education nonprofit, has launched the 26th Annual Great American Cleanup and the Great American Cleanup is the country’s most extensive community improvement program. In Liberty County, we participate in this national effort each year because we know how vital a clean community is for our quality of life.
To reduce litter, we should dispose of trash properly. This includes keeping trash can lids adequately shut. Not using our vehicles, particularly trucks, as mobile trash cans, and not thinking the ground or streets are trashcans, just tossing litter wherever. The Great American Cleanup (GAC) is one of our efforts to fight litter where it happens. GAC is the way that we as a community clean up after ourselves.
KLB knows it takes volunteers to support our program, which has a powerful effect on our community. We also appreciate our local partners who sponsor our local cleanups. Many of our local cities partner with Keep Liberty Beautiful to provide volunteer appreciation lunch after each citywide cleanup. Also, over 100 businesses, municipalities, churches, civic organizations, schools, and youth groups, as well as individuals, partner with Keep Liberty Beautiful each spring to make our community cleaner and more attractive each year.
So, you or your group can participate in the countywide cleanup on April 27, or schedule a neighborhood or group cleanup on a day that works for you. KLB provides cleanup supplies such as garbage bags, safety vests, work gloves, litter reachers, and water. We also offer KLB T-shirts to all registered volunteers.
Picking up litter is essential, but the powerful statement that individuals in our community make by participating in these efforts is even more valuable. It makes it clear that in Liberty County, litter is NOT acceptable. That message will mean more to someone who litters than any “Do Not Litter” sign ever will. The Great American Cleanup and our Adopt Liberty program cleanups are effective teaching tools to fight litter. So, join us in making a statement about who we are as a community.
To register for Great American Cleanup, you can visit our website www. keeplibertybeautiful.org, our FaceBook page, call KLB at (912) 880-4888, or email klcb@libertycountyga. com. I hope you are Ready to Keep Liberty Beautiful and make a difference where we all live, work, and play. Remember, one person can make a difference! For updates on Keep Liberty Beautiful events, visit our website: www. keeplibertybeautiful.org.