Hey there! Did you catch our Clean and Green Mississippi – August Update email? If not, you can check it out here: http://eepurl.com/b_WIRD.
In the email, you’ll find out about the new affiliates we’re welcoming into the Keep Mississippi Beautiful family as well as the latest on the Wildflower Trails of Mississippi project.
If you’re not on our email list, sign up here: http://eepurl.com/DJ95P.
Keep America Beautiful recently highlighted Wildflower Trails of Mississippi on their blog. Check out their post below:
Mississippi is well known for its natural beauty. But over the years, the amount of native wildflowers has dwindled because of the common threats of habitat loss and invasive plants.
To address the loss of wildflowers, Keep America Beautiful state affiliate Keep Mississippi Beautiful (KMB) took action to transform its public spaces into beautiful places by launching the Wildflower Trails of Mississippi project during Keep America Beautiful’s 2015 Great American Cleanup.
After a year of working with many community partners and volunteers, the project is blooming, planting the seeds to ensure Mississippi residents and visitors to the Magnolia state — as well as pollinators — will appreciate the sights and smells of wildflowers. The project complements other KMB beautification initiatives throughout the state.
KMB got the Wildflowers Trails of Mississippi project started after receiving a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to purchase wildflower seeds. Keep Mississippi Beautiful worked closely with the Mississippi State University Extension Service to develop a seed mix that features a variety of colorful blooms and foliage, thrives in Mississippi and is easy to maintain.
The project brought together a variety of partners, including the Mississippi Soil and Water Conservation Commission, Mississippi Department of Transportation, The Garden Clubs of Mississippi, and Mississippi State University’s Extension Service. And, after a year, the Wildflower Trails of Mississippi’s flowers are showing off their colors.
Keep America Beautiful conducts its National Planting Day on the first Saturday after Labor Day each September with community-based activities happening throughout the month.
National Planting Day celebrates the critical nature of native plants and trees in enhancing biodiversity and rebuilding ecosystems. Keep America Beautiful is asking National Planting Day participants to celebrate the theme of “Keep America Bee-utiful” by focusing their efforts on planting pollinators, in addition to native species. Register your 2016 National Planting Day event today!
We had a great day in Natchez last Saturday for Keep Mississippi Beautiful’s Great American Cleanup State Kickoff! Thanks to Keep Natchez/ Adams County Beautiful as well as all of the volunteers, partners and sponsors who made it possible.
The event is part of the nation’s largest community improvement program, taking place in some 20,000 communities nationwide. The event was also part of Natchez’s year-long tricentennial celebration.
Volunteers helped us landscape the flowerbeds inside of the Colonnades, the Rotary’s three “Welcome to Natchez” signs, and around the Community Alliance deck on Bluff Trails, as well as cleaning up litter downtown and other neighborhoods.
And the final results: BEAUTIFUL!
As Mississippi’s First Lady Deborah Bryant put it: “Natchez is such a beautiful city. Natchez is a city that depends so much on tourism, so it is important to keep the trash out of the street. You want to make a good first impression, so you can keep people coming back.”
We want to thank all of our partners who made it possible, including: Natchez Community Alliance, Southwest Distributors, City of Natchez, Coca Cola United of Natchez, Brown Bottling, Stine Garden Center, Miss Lou Veteran’s Coalition Honor Guard, Entergy, Mississippi Department of Transportation, Miss Lou Landscaping and Tree Service, City of Natchez Public Works Department, Magnolia Bluffs Hotel, Natchez Tricentennial Committee, Natchez High School Band and Choir, Lazarus Arts, City of Natchez Public, Transit System, Waste Pro, Natchez Convention Center, Natchez/Adams County Chamber of Commerce, United Mississippi Bank, American Medical Response, Curtis Moroney, Glad, the local Master Gardeners, Bowie’s Tavern, Walt Grayson, Tom King and the First Lady.
Check out this recent article in The Natchez Democrat on the Great American Cleanup.
It’s Great American Cleanup Season here in Mississippi! (See Gov. Phil Bryant’s proclamation.) Volunteers across the state are picking up litter, planting trees and shrubs and improving their communities.
The Great American Cleanup is the country’s largest community improvement program that kicks off in more than 20,000 communities each spring. This national program engages 2 million volunteers who take action in their communities to create positive change and lasting impact.
It’s official! Gov. Phil Bryant issued a proclamation that it’s officially Great American Cleanup Season in Mississippi.
Here’s a few ways to get involved in this year’s Great American Cleanup:
Keep Ridgeland Beautiful leaders with Keep America Beautiful President and CEO Jennifer Jehn.
Mississippians were recognized this week for their efforts in cleaning, greening and beautification. Keep America Beautiful honored Keep Mississippi Beautiful and its network of affiliates with a number of awards, including:
Keep Ridgeland Beautiful: This affiliate won the William Nash Award, which honors a young Keep America Beautiful affiliate. Organized in 2014, KRB quickly got to work, holding litter cleanups, revitalizing parks, launching a cigarette litter campaign and educating youngsters in schools.
Sarah Kountouris: Keep Mississippi Beautiful’s executive director was selected for the Sue Smith Professional Leadership Award. This prestigious award honors network leaders who have built and sustained programs for cleaning, greening and beautification. The award is named in honor of Sue Smith, Keep America Beautiful’s long-time director of education.
Keep Mississippi Beautiful Executive Director Sarah Kountouris with former Executive Director Barbara Dorr.
Old Town Middle School: The Ridgeland school’s Technology Student Association planned, designed and built a pergola for Midway Park, which won them a Youth Project Award. The pergola was installed during Keep Mississippi Beautiful’s Great American Cleanup State Kickoff last spring.
Department of Transportation Partnership Award: Keep Mississippi Beautiful and the Mississippi Department of Transportation were recognized for their continued collaboration to reduce litter, promote recycling and beautify places in the state.
Diamond Level Status: Keep Mississippi Beautiful earned the highest designation given to Keep America Beautiful state affiliates.
President’s Circle Award: Keep Mississippi Beautiful and 23 local affiliates received the President’s Circle Award for their hard work in the Keep America Beautiful network. Local affiliates include Keep Bay Saint Louis Beautiful, Keep Cleveland Beautiful, Keep Clinton Beautiful, Keep Our Coast Beautiful, Keep Columbia/Marion County Beautiful, Keep Copiah County Beautiful, Keep Corinth-Alcorn Beautiful, Keep Desoto County Beautiful, Keep Diamondhead Beautiful, Keep Jackson Beautiful, Keep Kosciusko Beautiful, Keep Madison the city Beautiful, Keep Mississippi Beautiful, Keep Morton Beautiful, Keep, Natchez/Adams County Beautiful, Keep New Albany/Union County Beautiful, Keep Oxford/Lafayatte County Beautiful, Keep Pearl Beautiful, Keep Pike County Beautiful, Keep Ridgeland Beautiful, Keep Simpson County Beautiful, Keep the Rez Beautiful, Keep Tupelo Beautiful and Keep Vicksburg Beautiful.
Keep Jackson People teaches Poindexter students about planting fruits and vegetables in the raised beds in the school’s new outdoor classroom.
Keep Jackson Beautiful is working on a new outdoor classroom at Poindexter Elementary School in Jackson. KJB volunteers did much of the work in late December to establish the gardens that are part of the classroom.
“This project is a special one to Keep Jackson Beautiful because the classroom creates a place where students can learn about the environment and allows teachers to expand the scope of their lesson plans,” KJB Executive Director Marsha Hobson said.
“KJB works to involve the community and encourages them to think of the environment as an educational component for the children and allows them to see the importance of increasing the students’ interest and awareness of their own environment,” she said.
KJB received a $5,000 Lowe’s Community Improvement Grant available to Keep America Beautiful affiliates. Volunteers also included Lowe’s Heroes, the volunteer corps at local Lowe’s stores.
“Because of Lowe’s, many young students will be learning about their environment for years to come in a natural setting,” Hobson said.
Last month, volunteers built raised beds and then planted herbs, lettuces, strawberries, onions, artichokes and blueberries in them. They also planted fruit trees. Nearby, volunteers established pollinator gardens to attract bees and butterflies, which are important to the fruits and vegetables.
The students at Poindexter will be learning about vegetables as they watch the garden grow and collect edible food grown by their own hands. In the coming weeks, Keep Jackson Beautiful will complete the grant project by adding an outdoor stage and a weather station.
“The environment has become an ever more important issue in the lives of young students today in Mississippi,” Hobson said. “By allowing them a hands-on opportunity to learn about nature, they will grow up with a better knowledge of the environment and its importance. They will learn about man’s impact upon it and how they can make a difference even in a small area such as their school and community.”
Sixty five percent of all cigarette butts are littered. Butts compose a third of litter on roadways. Keep Mississippi Beautiful is actively working to reduce cigarette litter in public places.
This past year, KMB worked with Mississippi Department of Transportation and local affiliates to launch a project through Keep America Beautiful’s Cigarette Litter Prevention Program to reduce cigarette butt litter at four welcome centers. KMB selected busy welcome centers with litter problems.
KAB data show that one of the best predictors for cigarette litter is whether a receptacle for butts is present. Receptacles were placed near the entrance of the welcome center. Additionally, the grant paid for tent cards and signage for inside restrooms and in flowerbeds.
MDOT staff said cigarette butts are frequently thrown in flowerbeds, so these signs served as a reminder to dispose of butts responsibly. During peak tourist season, KMB staff also handed out butt cups and literature, trying to educate people as they visited the welcome centers. Information for materials came from KAB’s CLPP.
KMB has already witnessed a decline in cigarette litter. At one welcome center, cigarette butt litter decreased by about 60 percent. This reduction is attributed to the presence of receptacles. With receptacles present now at these welcome centers, early scans for butts show a big drop.
More than 70 volunteers joined Keep Mississippi Beautiful in Columbia on June 6 to help improve the town’s Woodlawn Cemetery, which was badly damaged in a 2014 tornado.
More than 70 volunteers gathered June 6 to help Columbia, Mississippi, recover following a 2014 tornado. Thanks to a grant from Anheuser-Busch as well as the support of Southwest Distributors and many others, Keep Mississippi Beautiful held a community improvement day, where volunteers planted trees and shrubs at Columbia’s landmark Woodlawn Cemetery.
An EF3 tornado struck Columbia and other southern Mississippi communities on Dec. 23, 2014, killing five people, injuring 50 people and damaging many homes and businesses. Columbia is a historic town, and in addition to the loss of life and damage to property, many trees were knocked down, including many in the town’s cemetery.
Following the storm, many residents convened at Woodlawn Cemetery, where they found the hundred-year-old trees that once shaded the cemetery now twisted and destroyed and grave markers now toppled and buried. KMB and partners wanted to help the town restore this place to its once peaceful state.
Stephanie Hutchins, chair of Keep Mississippi Beautiful’s board of directors, plants shrubs near one of the cemetery’s entrances with Michael Belote with Southwest Distributors and Forrest Dungan of Columbia.
“It was heartwarming to know that people from across the state wanted to come and help our community recover,” said Rene Dungan, affiliate director for Keep Columbia/Marion County Beautiful. “We’re so thankful to our many local, state and national partners and the dedicated volunteers who made this day possible. This day got our town one step closer to recovering from the devastating tornado.”
The Keep America Beautiful/ Anheuser-Busch Environmental Grant of $10,000 enabled KMB to purchase trees, shrubs and other landscaping materials, which were planted in the cemetery, including the cemetery’s two entrances. KMB was selected for the grant earlier this year to aid the town in its recovery.
“When we learned of this grant opportunity through Anheuser-Busch, we actively sought it for Columbia, knowing that funds would help this town replant many of the gorgeous trees that were lost,” said Stephanie Hutchins, chair of KMB’s board of directors and vice president of Southwest Distributors. “This grant opportunity is making a difference across the country, including right here in Mississippi in Columbia.”
Volunteers from across the state came to help, including Keep Mississippi Beautiful board members, Southwest Distributors employees and Mississippi First Lady Deborah Bryant. Despite the heat, volunteers worked a long, hard day, proud of their contribution to the town’s cemetery. Additionally, Mississippi Power employees volunteered the day before the event, completing the preparation work for the event.
Partners included the city of Columbia, Marion County Development Partnership, Keep Columbia/Marion County Beautiful, Southwest Distributors, Anheuser-Busch, Mississippi Power and many others.
“We’re so grateful for all of our volunteers and partners who made this improvement day possible,” KMB Executive Director Sarah Kountouris said. “We know that when we come together and work to help one another, we can accomplish so much more.”
Keep Mississippi Beautiful partnered with Keep Ridgeland Beautiful to transform Midway Park.
This year, as part of our Great American Cleanup State Kickoff, we worked with Keep Ridgeland Beautiful to transform a small park into a community resource.
Nestled in the historic McLaurin Heights neighborhood, Keep Ridgeland Beautiful board members discovered the park a few years ago and saw it as an opportunity for improvement by adding a picnic area, seating and improved recreation features. This cleanup helped Ridgeland take this park to the next level.
“We’re so thankful to all of the volunteers and partners who came together to make this project possible,” said Jan Richardson, chair of Keep Ridgeland Beautiful. “These upgrades to Midway Park are a blessing to the nearby neighborhood.”
Check out what volunteers accomplished at Midway Park in this before-and-after photo. Photo by Renee Buckner.
During the cleanup, about 85 volunteers helped install grills, picnic tables, benches, trash, recycling receptacles and even a pergola. Students took the lead on building the pergola as part of a Technology Student Association construction challenge.
The basketball court was resurfaced leading up the cleanup, and volunteers striped new lines, cleaned backboards, put up new nets and added another goal. Volunteers also added wood chips to the park’s playground, where city employees installed to spring riders for young children.
We can’t forget our many volunteers with green thumbs. We spruced up the park with six new trees, dozens of shrubs and flowers and fresh pine straw to enhance the aesthetics and soil of garden beds. They also picked up litter near the park, including a neighboring wooded area.
And finally, the park got an official sign, which will help ensure Ridgeland citizens know about this local place.
We’re thankful for the volunteers who gave their time and to our many sponsors who helped us make this work possible. Sponsors included: Keep Mississippi Beautiful, Keep America Beautiful, Keep Ridgeland Beautiful, City of Ridgeland, Bulldog Construction Company, Bufkin Mechanical Inc., Waste Management, Ad Camp Inc., Southwest Distributors, Troy-Bilt, Brown Bottling Group, MMC, Colonial Heights Baptist Church, Audubon Homeowners Association, First Ridgeland Baptist Church, Mississippi Railroad Association and Ridgeland City Garden Club. Also, a special thanks to our city leaders, including Tim Taylor and Mike McCollum.
It’s amazing how we can improve and enhance places, like Midway Park, when working together. Projects like this one are happening across Mississippi as part of the Great American Cleanup, a nationwide clean sweep. More than 200 Great American Cleanups will happen in Mississippi from March to May. Let’s keep up the good work in keeping Mississippi beautiful!
Visit our Great American Cleanup Social Media Hub, where we’re sharing the community improvement efforts of volunteers across the state.
We’re encouraging you to include social media as part as your promotions of your event. Be sure to tag Keep Mississippi Beautiful in your Facebook and Twitter posts. Also, be sure to use these hashtags: #GAC2015 and #CleanGreenMS.
Keep Mississippi Beautiful 