Keep Mississippi Beautiful (KMB) and its community-based affiliates recently took home several top awards from Keep America Beautiful, the nation’s leading organization for litter prevention, recycling, and beautification. Mississippians across the state were recognized by Keep America Beautiful at its national conference on Feb. 7.

“Mississippi continues to show the nation that we are serious about fighting litter, promoting recycling and beautifying our communities,” KMB Executive Director Sarah Kountouris said. “We are proud of the Mississippians who were recognized by Keep America Beautiful.”

Recipients include:

• Jeannine May won the Sue Smith Professional Leadership Award for building and sustaining an exceptional affiliate. Jeannine serves as Affiliate Director of Keep the Rez Beautiful, known for its efforts to improve the water quality and beauty of the Ross Barnett Reservoir and its shores. Jeannine is the fifth Mississippian to win this award since it was created in the 1980s.
• Brett Rushing won the Young Professional Award, which recognizes an outstanding volunteer, under the age of 40, who demonstrates exceptional leadership in helping his or her community. Dr. Rushing was integral in KMB’s launch of the Wildflower Trails of Mississippi project, and he has worked with KMB and KAB affiliates across the state to support wildflower plantings. Brett is the second Mississippian to win this award since it was created in 2013.
• Keep Starkville Beautiful won the Bill Nash Award, which honors an affiliate less than three years old for exceptional success. Since its launch in 2017, Keep Starkville Beautiful has made significant investments to end littering, beautify public spaces, and improve recycling. Affiliate Director Amy Counterman accepted the award. Keep Starkville Beautiful is the third Mississippi affiliate to win this award in recent years.
• Keep Mississippi Beautiful and Keep Ridgeland Beautiful both won Innovation Partnership Awards. KMB was recognized as a state affiliate for its new anti-litter campaign, “Don’t Litter… Can It Mississippi,” created in partnership with Dak Prescott and Pepsi. KMB Executive Director Sarah Kountouris accepted the award. Keep Ridgeland Beautiful was recognized as a local affiliate for its citywide zinnia beautification effort in partnership with the Ridgeland Chamber of Commerce. Affiliate Director Jan Richardson and Board Members Ginger Cocke, Rachel Brantley and Lea Anne Stacy accepted the award.
• Mississippi Department of Transportation won the State Agency Partnership Award for its ongoing support of Keep Mississippi Beautiful and litter prevention efforts across the state.
• Keep Mississippi Beautiful received the Diamond Level recognition for sustained success in the Keep America Beautiful network.
• 30 local affiliates in Mississippi won the President’s Circle Award for sustained success. They include: Keep Belzoni Beautiful, Keep Brookhaven-Lincoln County Beautiful, Keep Canton Beautiful, Keep Clinton Beautiful, Keep Columbia/Marion County Beautiful, Keep Corinth-Alcorn Beautiful, Keep Desoto County Beautiful, Keep Diamondhead Beautiful, Keep Flora Beautiful, Keep Harrison County Beautiful, Keep Hattiesburg Beautiful, Keep Holmes County Beautiful, Keep Indianola Beautiful, Keep Jackson Beautiful, Keep Kosciusko Beautiful, Keep Leake County Beautiful, Keep Madison the city Beautiful, Keep Magee Beautiful, Keep Mendenhall Beautiful, Keep Natchez/Adams County Beautiful, Keep Oxford/Lafayette County Beautiful, Keep Pascagoula Beautiful, Keep Pearl Beautiful, Keep Pike County Beautiful, Keep Ridgeland Beautiful, Keep Simpson County Beautiful, Keep Starkville Beautiful, Keep the Rez Beautiful, Keep Tupelo Beautiful, and Keep Waveland Beautiful.

Keep America Beautiful President Helen Lowman presents Ron Aldridge with the Iron Eyes Cody Award.

From Keep America Beautiful —

Keep America Beautiful, the nation’s iconic community improvement nonprofit organization celebrating its 65^th anniversary in 2018, recently presented Jackson, Mississippi’s Ron Aldridge with its Iron Eyes Cody Award in recognition of his decades of community service devoted to advancing Mississippi as a cleaner, greener and more beautiful state.

Aldridge, who was nominated for the award by Keep Mississippi Beautiful (KMB), was presented with Keep America Beautiful’s top volunteer honor at its annual National Awards Ceremony, held during Keep America Beautiful’s National Conference in Dallas, Texas, from Jan. 17-19.

The Iron Eyes Cody Award was created in honor of Keep America Beautiful’s landmark public awareness campaign of the 1970s, which is credited with awakening the environmental consciousness of an entire generation of Americans. The award is given to a man who demonstrates exceptional leadership in raising public awareness about ending litter, improving recycling and beautifying communities, as well as the need for citizens to participate in activities that help transform public spaces into beautiful places.

“Affiliate directors from across the Keep America Beautiful network in Mississippi describe Ron Aldridge as the ‘hardest working volunteer’ and a ‘joy to have around,’” said Keep America Beautiful President Helen Lowman during the awards presentation. “Ron’s leadership and volunteer efforts have helped Keep Mississippi Beautiful and our local affiliates better serve their communities.”

Aldridge, who serves as the executive vice president of the Mississippi Beverage Association, has served on the KMB board of directors since 1992 and as a past chairman. His close working relationship with Mississippi legislators has provided great visibility for many of KMB’s projects, including Keep Mississippi Beautiful Legislative Day, where he’s rallied legislators to sign the leaders against litter pledge. In 2015, he worked with Mississippi lawmakers and state officials to pass a bill that exempts the purchases by KMB and all of its affiliates from state sales taxes. Under Aldridge’s guidance, a partnership with the Mississippi Department of Transportation has been vital to raising KMB’s visibility and effectiveness throughout the state.

Every year, he provides tremendous support to the success of KMB’s Great American Cleanup State Kickoff. And Aldridge has been a significant supporter in training affiliate leaders.

“Mississippi is blessed to have Ron Aldridge, who works tirelessly to advance cleaning, greening and beautification efforts in Mississippi,” said Sarah Kountouris, Executive Director, Keep Mississippi Beautiful.

His contributions to KMB and Keep America Beautiful affiliates in Mississippi spurred KMB to honor him with the Volunteer of the Year Award in 2016. In fact, KMB renamed the award – the Ron Aldridge Volunteer of the Year Award – to commemorate his contributions.

In addition to Aldridge’s leadership and service to KMB’s board, he was one of three original organizers of the Mississippi Recycling Coalition (MRC) and has served on its board of directors since 1997. Additionally, Aldridge has served during many cleanup and recycling efforts with his residential neighborhood association, his local business community, and other communities throughout the state. Aldridge has served on Keep Jackson Beautiful’s board of directors, former Gov. Haley Barbour’s environmental task force, the Mississippi Scenic Byways Advisory Committee, as a member of the Mississippi Environmental Educators Association, and the State Recycling Task Force. Keep Mississippi Beautiful also selected Aldridge in 2003 for its highest honor, the Louise Godwin Award, for his many efforts to advance Keep America Beautiful’s mission in Mississippi.

Aldridge was one of more than 80 individuals and organizations from communities across America to receive national recognition. Keep America Beautiful’s National Awards recognize the passion, dedication and impact of Keep America Beautiful’s affiliates from across the nation as well as partner organizations and individuals who share Keep America Beautiful’s vision of a country in which every community is a clean, green and beautiful place to live.

The Mississippi Recycling Coalition and Mississippi Magnolia Chapter of Solid Waste Association of North America are partnering to host the Mississippi Joint Solid Waste and Recycling Conference on May 15-17, 2018 at the Hollywood Casino in Bay St. Louis. More information will be available here as the conference date nears.

Keep Mississippi Beautiful invites neighborhood associations, churches, youth groups and other organizations to join us for our Great American Cleanup each March, April and May.

To help with your cleanup, Keep Mississippi provides Glad trash bags and other supplies (while they last). To request supplies, please fill and submit a request form. Following your cleanup, be sure to fill and submit a wrap-up report. (Affiliates, please request supplies through Keep America Beautiful.)

Keep America Beautiful’s Great American Cleanup is the nation’s largest community improvement program, engaging more than 5 million volunteers and participants every year to create positive change and lasting impact in local communities.

Entering its 20th year in 2017, the Great American Cleanup offers structured service projects – experiential environment education, organized volunteer events and employee engagement opportunities – in more than 20,000 communities across the country. Our volunteers’ work returns, on average, $175 million in measurable benefits across participating communities over the past five years. Keep America Beautiful affiliates and participating organizations coordinate events and programs to renew parks, trails and recreation areas; clean shorelines and waterways; remove litter and debris; reduce waste and increase recycling; and plant trees, flowers and community gardens, among more than 40,000 events annually to inspire a new generation of community stewards.

One of Keep Mississippi Beautiful’s key partners, the Mississippi Recycling Coalition, is offering scholarships to undergraduate students enrolled in Mississippi public and private colleges and universities who are either majoring in areas related to environmental sciences, environmental education, and/or are active in promoting recycling or other sustainable practices.

The Mississippi Recycling Coalition in conjunction with the Mississippi Beverage Association is offering up to ten $1,000 scholarships.

Applications and transcripts must be received by October 27, 2017.

Learn more here.

From Keep America Beautiful —

Keep America Beautiful, the nation’s iconic community improvement nonprofit organization, today announced McDonald’s has become a National Sponsor of Keep America Beautiful’s Great American Cleanup (GAC), the largest year-round community improvement program in the country. Efforts will get underway on September 9, 2017 with National Planting Day, a fall initiative of the GAC. McDonald’s is the exclusive Presenting Sponsor of National Planting Day.

Held annually the first Saturday after Labor Day, National Planting Day kicks off the fall planting season for Keep America Beautiful’s network of more than 600 state and community-based Affiliates and other local partners, including many in Mississippi, with events taking place through October. The annual initiative celebrates the critical nature of native plants and trees in enhancing biodiversity, rebuilding ecosystems and supporting pollinator health.

Beautiful public places transcend aesthetic appeal to positively impact the lives of
area residents, visitors, businesses and institutions. Green spaces restore our communities, helping to make them more environmentally healthy, socially connected, and economically sound. National Planting Day focuses on four areas of need:

• Increasing the number of native trees in public spaces.
• Bringing natural beauty and sustainable urban infrastructure to “built environments.”
• Creating community-supported sustainable vegetable and fruit gardens.
• Greening and restoring vacant lots with low-maintenance indigenous plants and trees in underserved urban and rural neighborhoods.

“We’re incredibly grateful to McDonald’s for their support in shining a light on the Great American Cleanup and National Planting Day, which provide hands-on opportunities for anyone to participate in improving their local communities,” said Helen Lowman, president and CEO, Keep America Beautiful.

“Like McDonald’s, our footprint touches thousands of communities and millions of people. We are eager to work with McDonald’s, its restaurants and employees to create more beauty across America.”

Tips and ideas for celebrating National Planting Day can be found at https://www.kab.org/ourprograms/great-american-cleanup/national-planting-day.

Celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2018, the Great American Cleanup is the nation’s largest community improvement program with an estimated 60,000 events occurring from spring through fall in more than 20,000 communities across the country. The Great American Cleanup annually engages millions of volunteers throughout the country to help renew parks, trails and recreation areas; clean shorelines and waterways; remove litter and debris; reduce waste and improve recycling; and plant trees, flowers and community gardens, among other activities to inspire a new generation of community stewards.

National sponsors of the Great American Cleanup include Altria, Dow, The Glad Products
Company, Lowe’s, Niagara Bottling and ReadyRefreshSM by Nestlé®.

About McDonald’s USA
McDonald’s USA, LLC, serves a variety of menu options made with quality ingredients to more than 25 million customers every day. Nearly 90 percent of McDonald’s 14,000 U.S. restaurants are independently owned and operated by businessmen and women. Customers can now log online for free at approximately 11,500 participating Wi-Fi enabled McDonald’s U.S. restaurants. For more information, visit www.mcdonalds.com, or follow us on Twitter @McDonalds and Facebook www.facebook.com/McDonaldsUS/.

About Keep America Beautiful
Keep America Beautiful, the nation’s iconic community improvement nonprofit organization, inspires and educates people to take action every day to improve and beautify their community environment. Established in 1953, we strive to End Littering, Improve Recycling and Beautify America’s Communities. We believe everyone has a right to live in a clean, green and beautiful community, and shares a responsibility to contribute to that vision. Behavior change – steeped in education, research and behavioral science – is the cornerstone of Keep America Beautiful. We empower generations of community stewards with volunteer programs, hands-on experiences,
curricula, practical advice and other resources to deliver measurable environmental, economic and social benefits. The organization is driven by more than 600 state and local affiliates, millions of volunteers, and the support of corporate partners, social and civic service organizations, academia, municipalities and government officials. Join us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. Donate and take action at kab.org.