The 2022 Great American Cleanup was one of the most productive in Keep Pickens Beautiful’s recent history, and it’s all thanks to you, our supportive community. This month’s events are excellent examples of the effectiveness of teamwork and collaboration.
The Great American Cleanup is a national program sponsored by Keep America Beautiful. This is the nation’s largest community improvement program with an estimated 15,000 community events nationwide. Now in its 24th year, the Great American Cleanup (GAC), as stated by Keep America beautiful, “prompts individuals to take greater responsibility for their local environments by conducting grassroots community service projects that engage volunteers, local businesses, and civic leaders.”
The Finale to a Month of Events
This past Saturday, April 30, was the final GAC 2022 event for KPB. Another small but mighty Pickup Pickens Team cleaned up the Camp Road roadsides between the sheriff’s office and the intersection of Camp and Refuge Roads. In 1.8 miles, we collected 17 bags of litter, 2 yard-signs, and various car parts. Check it out next time you’re in the area – what an improvement!
In addition to the cleanup, we got to appreciate the beauty of this road. From the car, as you’re zipping by, it’s hard to notice the little things that make this part of our county so unique. KPB will be hosting regular cleanups in the coming months. Come join us – you’ll be doing good for our community and you’ll see amazing things that blend into the background from the car window.
Thank you to everyone who was driving by and slowed down for our team on Camp Road. Thank you to our volunteers who did an excellent job picking up the roadsides. You were incredible and have helped to make one of our county’s most-traveled roads more beautiful. And thank you to our KPB ‘Trash Truk’ driver for helping to keep us safe, for collecting the bags as we went so we didn’t have to carry them, and for hauling our load to the recycling center. Teamwork
An Extremely Impactful GAC
After two years of no in-person events, KPB made up for it this year. With projects planned for each Saturday in April, we cleaned up the garden spaces on Main Street, replanted them with Edible Jasper plants, expanded the Edible Jasper garden behind the Kirby-Quinton Cabin, cleaned up the roadsides on Carver Mill Road and Camp Road, and hosted our first Earth Day on Main community appreciation event. Here are some statistics from this year’s Great American Cleanup:
- 39 bags of trash collected from the roadsides of Carver Mill and Camp Roads
- 2 tires, many yard-signs, a coffee maker, various car parts, and other random items collected from those same roadsides
- Cleaned out the garden spaces on Main Street and filled them with quality organic soil and mulch to get them ready for new plants
- 400+ plants put in the ground in the downtown Edible Jasper gardens (mostly grown from seed by our board members)
- 125 peppers, eggplants, and tomato plants (also grown from seed by our board members) given away at Earth Day on Main
- 436 tires collected through the Tire Amnesty program at the Pickens Recycling Center
- Lots and lots of new volunteers joining the KPB community – We’re so happy to meet our new friends!
Keep Pickens In addition to the projects and programs sponsored by Keep Pickens Beautiful, another exciting part of this year’s Great American Cleanup is the collaboration among various groups to make this a successful event:
- KPB worked with Pickens County, the City of Jasper, the Downtown Development Authority, and most of the downtown businesses throughout the month.
- The Pickens County Progress, North Georgia Fruit Grower, Cheryl Stancil and Greg Thomason, and our members were generous in their support and donations.
- We couldn’t have gotten the word out about our activities as widely without the help of the Pickens County Progress, KnowPickens, Pickens County, and all our friends and supporters who shared our posts and announcements.
Collaboration and Community
Collaboration and community involvement are key to KPB’s success and effectiveness; thank you! We look forward to growing our relationships to make Pickens County even more beautiful and awesome!
Join Keep Pickens Beautiful community. This is a great opportunity for you to meet your neighbors, have fun, and learn new things, and you’ll also have the satisfaction of knowing that you are helping to improve the quality of life in our county.
Contact KPB at KeepPickensBeautiful.org or stop by their office at the south end of Main Street Monday – Friday, 11:00-3:00.