On Saturday April 4, it was a beautiful day and Keep Carrollton Beautiful volunteers made sure our streets, parks, greenbelts, streams and lakes are even more beautiful now! Spending their own free time in community service, 270 volunteers collected 9,740 pounds of litter and debris from 34 sites in Carrollton. ?We had individual volunteers and scouts and schools and churches and neighborhoods this year. They focused their amazing ?can do? attitudes to plan, set up, collect trash and break down our event. We could do nothing without their beautiful spirits.? said Sharon Goddard.

The Don?t Mess With Texas Trash-Off event was a grassroots partnership with Keep America Beautiful, Keep Texas Beautiful and the Texas Department of Transportation – with 340 affiliates cleaning all over Texas. All of America should be looking pretty good today!

Locally, the Trash-Off was Keep Carrollton Beautiful?s sixth annual participation. The event is just one of many activities they host or empower during the three month Great American Cleanup. Keep Carrollton Beautiful is working with many schools, neighborhoods and corporate teams to supply smaller events during this time.

Thanks to Albertsons at Josey and Keller Springs and at Old Denton and Hebron the volunteers didn?t go away hungry. Albertsons thinks that ?it?s important to be good neighbors and give back to our communities?..to improve all of our lives?. As a great corporate citizen, they have supported Keep Carrollton Beautiful since its inception in 2004. ?I hope that the citizens of Carrollton won?t let this valuable asset get pushed out of our community by stiff competition? said the director of Keep Carrollton Beautiful.

Dr. Pepper Snapple Group?s representative, Bill Kirkland, has also been supporting Keep Carrollton Beautiful since its beginning. ?We (DPSG) have a proud, longstanding heritage of caring … for our consumers, our customers, our employees and our neighbors in the communities where we live and do business across the United States? caring is at the heart of our business, shaping our values and the importance we place on corporate social responsibility?? Dr. Pepper really helped out at the Trash-Off making sure none of the hard working volunteers went thirsty.

Keep Carrollton Beautiful could never accommodate so many volunteers without the loyal and enthusiastic support of the Carrollton Evening Lions Club. These Lions are some of the community?s most steadfast local servants. Their website says ?When it comes to meeting challenges, our response is simple: We serve?in regions battered by natural disaster, in schools and in eyeglass recycling centers, Lions are at work, helping, leading, planning and supporting?We want everyone to see a better tomorrow?we support vision screenings, eye banks and eyeglass recycling?We believe everyone deserves a healthy life?providing health programs for hearing loss, diabetes prevention and improving the health of children and adults around the world.? ?Our Carrollton Evening Lions Club lovingly cooks the best hot dogs in Texas! And always with a smile.? said Sharon Goddard.

Thanks to the many volunteers, this year?s Trash-Off was a roaring success. The people involved know who they are and are very much appreciated. If you?d like to help Keep Carrollton Beautiful, go to their website www.KeepCaroolltonBeautiful.org and join.

Another fun way you can help is by bidding on their Don?t Mess With Texas Trash-Off On-Line Auction. The auction will raise funds for their programs and you can still bid through April 8.

Halliburton is always a great team of workers. Great supervisors too!	Good job Creekview Spanish Club!	Mehdi Dhanjy and the Hebron Key Club are a great crew!

Last Saturday Feb. 23rd, in the very cold wind, almost 400 volunteers came together for Carrollton Cares Volunteer Day to make Carrollton a better place to play. The Elm Fork Nature Preserve coordinator, Elizabeth Acosta, put together teams from Keep Carrollton Beautiful, businesses, scouts, and service organizations from Creekview, Hebron, Ranchview and Turner to complete major maintenance projects at five different locations in Carrollton. Most of the volunteers are accustomed to volunteering for Keep Carrollton Beautiful, so they took it all in stride. There isn?t much that can?t be accomplished with cooperation!

Besides Ms. Acosta, City of Carrollton employees Heather Grance, Gena Spradling, Theresa Ostrander, as well as Tammy from the Senior Center all pitched in with the volunteers to accomplish the work. Keep Carrollton Beautiful?s executive director, Sharon Goddard, and two Keep Carrollton Beautiful Board of Directors members, Diane Taheri and Cathy Henesey ?manned? two of the locations.

Ms. Acosta split the volunteers up into groups. Some, supervised by Halliburton employees, worked at the Dimension Tract to spread mulch on the trail all the way down to the canoe put-in to cover the gushy mud and picked up trash around the whole area. Others were at the Elm Fork Nature Preserve spreading mulch on trails, picking up trash and sealing benches. Others, including many homeowners, worked at each of two greenbelts ? Nob Hill Greenbelt Park – from McCoy Road to Frankford and Greenbelt Park – from Josey Lane to Woodlake Elementary School picking up trash. The largest group, including many Halliburton employees lead by Kathy Williams, volunteering for Keep Carrollton Beautiful, sealed all the benches at the Senior Center/Library Complex at Josey Ranch, sealed the fence around the ?natural area? at the library and pick-up trash from Keller Springs, all through Josey Ranch Sports Complex including the lakes and creek and down to Thomas swimming pool. What a great accomplishment in only two hours!

?We could have never been so efficient if it wasn?t for Elizabeth?s planning and coordination. She had all the supplies ready for us and everyone knew what was expected of them at each of the sites,? said Sharon Goddard, Keep Carrollton Beautiful. ?She did a great job!?

They had some wonderful in-kind donors ? coffee from Starbucks, sealer from Keller Moore paint, composted mulch from Living Earth Technologies, drinks from Pepsi ? but best of all was all the wonderful (and warm) pizza from Little Caesars. Since some of the volunteers didn?t stay for lunch, they took the still piping hot pizza to Juliet Fowler Home.

If you?d like to find out how you can help at the Elm Fork Nature Preserve, go to ww.cityofcarrollton.com/leisure/parksrec. If you?d like to volunteer for Keep Carrollton Beautiful, their next event is the Great American Cleanup on 4-19-08. Go to www.KeepCarrolltonBeautiful.org for information and registration.

Carrollton, We Really Cleanup Up!

	The Carrollton Evening Lions Club are great partners! And they can really cook some goodhotdogs.
Girl Scouts of America Troop 1348 are indispensible talet that we couldn’t do without. They make it all run so smoothly	Boy Scouts of America Troop 114 really come in a make it all possible! Lots of energy in their group.	BLIA-YAD of Dallas joined us for the second year.

On Saturday April 19th, Keep Carrollton Beautiful, with the help of it?s dedicated Board of Directors, the Carrollton Evening Lions Club, City of Carrollton and 300 volunteers – cleaned the whole community. If you were out for the beautiful day, you probably saw teams of volunteers picking up trash out in fields, green belts and along creeks and train tracks. The numbers aren?t in yet but they filled a half of a 30-yard dumpster!

This was Keep Carrollton Beautiful?s fifth annual Great American Cleanup / Don?t? Mess With Texas Trash-Off and the event awareness has been building steadily. The kids and their committed leaders from Girl Scout Troop 1348 and Boy Scout Troop 114 are veteran volunteers for this event; helping with the planning each year. Keep Carrollton Beautiful?s Teen Advisory Board members pitched in to bring community service organizations from both Hebron and Creekview.

Making ?mass feeding? possible is the Carrollton Evening Lions Club. Swarms of gold vests could be seen carrying grills, cooking and passing out hot dogs to the hungry volunteers.

?Our in-kind donors make an event this large possible. Without Cadbury-Schweppes, Albertson, United Party Rental Center, Allied Waste Services, Frito-Lay, Tom Thumb and Trinity Medical Center, we would not be able to accommodate the trash and our volunteers,? said Sharon Goddard.

Environmental Educators provided games, specimens and demonstrations – informing everyone. Many were surprised to learn how long it takes to decompose everyday trash, like 75 years for disposable diapers, 10-12 years for cigarette butts, and NEVER for styrofoam.

The participants also learned about how they can create their own Backyard Wildlife Habitat to provide migration corridors for birds. Beneficial Aquatic bugs were on display. There were ?found? natural specimens from the Elm Fork Nature Preserve. And a stormwater Enviro-Scape showed everyone how pesticide run-off from your yard can pollute creeks and lakes.

During the Great American Cleanup, Keep Carrollton Beautiful not only holds this event each year; but assists groups cleaning all 6 Adopt-A-Spots, schools with Earth Day Celebrations, and a Trinity River cleanup in Carrollton. This year many schools and neighborhood groups also cleaned.

?What we notice is that the railroads aren?t very good neighbors. They are responsible for trash along their own tracks, but that?s where we pick up the most,? said the Director.

The City of Carrollton is deciding how to fund Keep Carrollton Beautiful right now. Please let your City Council person know how important you think their programs are. Keep Carrollton Beautiful wants to continue to provide you with a place to plug into the community.

If you?d like to see how you can help or have a project in mind, go to www.KeepCarrolltonBeautiful.org. Thank you to everyone who came out to the make the Great American Cleanup a great success!

On Saturday March 1st, at Keep Carrollton Beautiful?s Idea Exchange, 36 neighbors came together from all over the city to brainstorm and discuss hundreds of ideas! All participants were involved, caring citizens exercising their personal power to be part of the solution in their neighborhood.

They noticed that all their neighborhoods had the same intention of being clean, beautiful and safe ? just some were closer to the goal than others. There were those who were successful HOAs with bylaws and mandatory fees; others who did a lot but were voluntary neighborhood associations with not much money to work with; and still others who were deciding how to start a group or resurrect one.

All of them have in common our City ordinances and available City neighborhood assistance programs. There were ideas about how to apply for the grants and how to get more involved in the surveillance of their neighborhoods.

They found they had dozens of opportunities for help from Keep Carrollton Beautiful. Keep Carrollton Beautiful has made it possible for Hunter?s Creek HOA to award ?Yard of the Month? with their own sign. A non-profit helping local teens, Team Me USA, is looking into adopting a ?spot?. Because they are choosing a greenbelt to adopt, they will have more rustic signs than those seen around town for Keep Carrollton Beautiful?s Adopt-A-Spot program.

Many of the groups are planning neighborhood cleanups for Keep Carrollton Beautiful?s Great American Cleanup on April 19th. They discovered that all they have to do is come get their free supplies and bring the trash back to Keep Carrollton Beautiful?s event to avoid landfill fees.

The attendees learned about Green Business presentations, school paper recycling programs, cell phone recycling and many other programs offered by Keep Carrollton Beautiful. You can find out about all of these programs addressing environmental issues around AIR, LAND, WATER and COMMUNITY at www.KeepCarrolltonBeautiful.org.

Be sure to see the displays about Keep Carrollton Beautiful?s neighborhood programs and the Great American Cleanup at both libraries during March and April – so you too can become part of the solution.

On Saturday, at Keep Carrollton Beautiful?s Idea Exchange, 36 neighbors came together from all over the city to brainstorm and discuss hundreds of ideas! All participants were involved, caring citizens exercising their personal power to be part of the solution in their neighborhood.

They noticed that all their neighborhoods had the same intention of being clean, beautiful and safe ? just some were closer to the goal than others. There were those who were successful HOAs with bylaws and mandatory fees; others who did a lot but were voluntary neighborhood associations with not much money to work with; and still others who were deciding how to start a group or resurrect one.

All of them have in common our City ordinances and available City neighborhood assistance programs. There were ideas about how to apply for the grants and how to get more involved in the surveillance of their neighborhoods.

They found they had dozens of opportunities for help from Keep Carrollton Beautiful. Keep Carrollton Beautiful has made it possible for Hunter?s Creek HOA to award ?Yard of the Month? with their own sign. A non-profit helping local teens, Team Me USA, is looking into adopting a ?spot?. Because they are choosing a greenbelt to adopt, they will have more rustic signs than those seen around town for Keep Carrollton Beautiful?s Adopt-A-Spot program.

Many of the groups are planning neighborhood cleanups for Keep Carrollton Beautiful?s Great American Cleanup on April 19th. They discovered that all they have to do is come get their free supplies and bring the trash back to Keep Carrollton Beautiful?s event to avoid landfill fees.

The attendees learned about Green Business presentations, school paper recycling programs, cell phone recycling and many other programs offered by Keep Carrollton Beautiful. You can find out about all of these programs addressing environmental issues around AIR, LAND, WATER and COMMUNITY at www.KeepCarrolltonBeautiful.org.

Be sure to see the displays about Keep Carrollton Beautiful?s neighborhood programs and the Great American Cleanup at both libraries during March and April – so you too can become part of the solution.

• Become a member of your school’s Green Team for fun activities and special resources (below) from Keep Carrollton Beautiful or email Mark Schallhorn at schallhornm@cfbisd.edu to see what his Science Resource Center has waiting for YOU.
• Let us know what activities your Green Team is accomplishing and we’ll put you on our website!
• Be sure and participate in your school’s paper recycling program.
• Watch this to find our WHY:http://www.secret-life.org/paper/
• Contact your Teen Advisory Board member to find out about upcoming events geared for high school students.

Green Team Resources

	Don’t Mess with Texas Litter Bags, perfect for every vehicle
	Don’t Mess with Texas decals, for glass application in your room or on your vehicle
	Don’t Mess with Texas stickers, perfect for binders and notebooks
	River and Sky activity book, 13 pages, older kids. Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
	Clean Water for Texas, 12 pages, for teachers, leaders or parents,Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
	Drive Clean Across Texas bumper sticker – very informative website at drivecleanacrosstexas.org
	Drive Clean Across Texas For their health…and yours, pamphlet about what you can do, EPA, TxDOT, TCEQ
	When You Care for Your Car, You Care for the Air, booklet in English, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
	When You Care for Your Car, You Care for the Air, same booklet reversed  in Spanish,  Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
	Water Re-Cycle-S poster, 18×24, Environmental Protection Agency, back has activities about water cycle
	Virtural Water Treatment Plant Tour – DVD with activities, water cycle explained, Environmental Protection Agenecy
	Meet the Air Pollution Gremlins poster, 16×20, front in English, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
	Meet the Air Pollution Gremlins poster, 16×20, back in Spanish, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
	Take Care of Texas, 4" x 4" decal, refers to great website, takecareoftexas.org
	Take Care of Texas pamphlet with great ideas, primer on living a greener life, wonderful resources for teachers on their site, takecareoftexas.org
	Clean Air Crew activity book, 17 pages, might be available in Spanish if you need it, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
	Parents Guide to Clean Air Crew, activity book, TCEQ

• Conceived, orchestrated and funded 48 public events utilizing 5,150 individual volunteers to collect more than 47,000 pounds of litter and diverting more than 65,000 pounds of recyclables ? avoiding disposal fees, using free volunteer labor benefiting a number of charities, and creating revenue for the community of Carrollton.
• Amassed almost 34,000 volunteer hours valued at more than $429,000.00 ? partnering with more than 166 businesses, 10 civic organizations, 15 other non-profits, 10 City of Carrollton people/departments, Carrollton/Farmers Branch and Lewisville Independent School Districts and PTA?s, the North District Boy Scouts and both the North Central Texas Council of the Girl Scouts USA to unity Carrollton.
• Raised more than $136,000. dollars of in-kind donations; and raised more than $98,000. dollars in cash to support event planning, cleanups, recycling and environmental awareness classes for Carrollton.
• Educated more than 4,200 citizens in natural resource conservation and stewardship responsibility ? quadrupling single family residential recycling, maintaining pre-draught levels of water consumption and creating a cell phone recycling program.
• Initiated Adopt-A-Spot for the business community and currently have 6 spot sponsors.
• Created a Teen Advisory Board from all Carrollton high schools and awarded 8 college scholarships to our graduating senior members.
• Held four Texas Recycles Days – partnering with dozens of recycling vendors, the City of Carrollton, Carrollton Evening Lions Club, CFBISD and all area high schools ? diverting 64,000 pounds of recyclables from the landfill.
• Partnered with CFBISD, Carrollton Evening Lions Club, Halliburton, Boy Scouts of American, The Civic League and the City of Carrollton Parks and Rec. Department to hold Making A Difference in Carrollton workdays ? the first year working on four homes ? refurbishing and repairing 2 elderly citizens? homes and manicuring the yards of 2 disabled citizens? group homes; the second year we were at the CFBISD Outdoor Learning Center to construct a 225? x 150? Native Plant Garden (no mow area) acquiring $2,600.00 worth of ?recycled lumber? for the project; the third year we installed 6 benches at the Native Plant Garden so the kids can observe, sketch and BE in nature; and this year completed mulching, sealing and trash pickup maintenance projects at five sites with the City on Carrollton Cares Day.
• Coordinated collecting recycled barrels, had student groups paint them with environmental scenes and installed them in administrative office of six schools and sponsor lobbies to recycle cell phones.
• Hosted six Texas SmartScape Classes; an Idea Exchange with Keep Texas Beautiful coordinators; an On-Line Auction; a Meeting with the Mayor for sponsors and members; Sustainable Carrollton; an Econ. Develop. Bus Tour; an Idea Exchange for neighborhood groups and initiated Green Team paper recycling with ABITIBI paying the CFBISD schools for an average of 65 tons of paper a month.
• Hosted five Great American Cleanups with hundreds of volunteers collecting 47,000 pounds of litter and debris from greenbelts, creeks, vacant lots and streets in Carrollton.
• Recognized twelve homeowners with Yard of the Month awards and newspaper recognition and recently made it possible for neighborhood groups to give their own awards.
• Partnered with Intuit and Exponent HR for five Springs River Cleanups, cleaning tons of gushy trash from the Elm Fork and Denton Creek of the Trinity River.
• Created and distributed ten newsletters educating about environmental stewardship and acknowledging a Volunteer of the Season in each.
• Launched a new donated website at www.KeepCarrolltonBeautiful.org to educate the public about environmental issues.
• Received two Silver Star Awards and two Gold Star Awards from Keep Texas Beautiful.
• Partnered with Dallas Down River, Carrollton Evening Lions Club, Trinity Medical Center and Allied Waste Services to host two and plan a forth regional Trinity River Trash Bash events with hundreds of volunteers spending thousands of hours planning and collecting tons of gushy litter and waste from the Elm Fork and McInnish Park.
• Partnered with the City Arborist and Senior Center to host Carrollton Arbor Day at Josey Ranch Lake with 400 volunteers planting 105 containerized trees, giving ?foster homes? to 100 pecan seedlings donated by the Texas Forest Service, planting many acorns ?like a squirrel?, drawing the ?Beauty of Carrollton? and dedicating a pecan tree to Clyde R. Horn for Environmental Service.
• Partnered with Carrollton service organizations to create Community Carrollton.
• Distilled federal, state, regional and city environmental goals to create goals and initiatives for us to promote.
• Created and printed reusable grocery bags to sell to the public and make plastic obsolete.

The citizens of Carrollton really did a wonderful job diverting recyclables for Texas Recycles Day. With the help of Keep Carrollton Beautiful, more than 200 volunteers got a cute t-shirt, had fun serving the community on a beautiful day and ate a lot of pizza. And with the help of eight recycling vendors and the City, Carrollton diverted 30,000 pounds of recyclables from the landfill.

The Carrollton Evening Lions Club collected eyeglasses and reusable medical equipment. ?Close Knit? (Senior Center) collected knitting yarn. Dallas Computer Parts collected electronics and with the help of the City of Carrollton, computer monitors. Firestone on Old Denton Road collected car tires and car batteries. Keep Carrollton Beautiful collected cell phones and lap tops. PTA Council ?Clothes Closet? collected gently used clothing and shoes. And Triple A Recycling collected scrap metal and appliances.

Keep Carrollton Beautiful educates about environmental issues including the 4R?s and reached a lot of people on Texas Recycles Day. They reduced our landfill tipping fees. They reused lots of clothes. They recycled what couldn?t be reused. And they encouraged everyone to rebuy recycled material goods by selling their reusable grocery bags.

Of course, Keep Carrollton Beautiful couldn?t do it without the support of great in-kind donors like Newman Smith High School, Domino?s Pizza, Tom Thumb, Kroger and Albertsons. Or without the support of their sponsors like Carrollton Evening Lions Club and Trinity Medical Center.

If you?d like to help close the loop, go to www.KeepCarrolltonBeautiful.org and buy your own reusable grocery bags. The bags are made from recycled material, very strong and washable. They work better than plastic bags because they hold more. The reusable grocery bags are green and have Keep Carrollton Beautiful?s logo on them. When you use them, everyone will see that you are part of the solution.

?It?s our intention to teach everyone about reduce, reuse, recycle, rebuy. Our reusable grocery bags are great symbols of stepping forward to support that cause,? said Sharon Goddard. ?I personally would like to make plastic bags obsolete in Carrollton.?

Well, we didn’t get to clean the river last fall due to rushing, dangerous water but we’re on for this year. This will be our third participation (forth year trying) in the regional event. All those communities along the Trinity River will be cleaning also.

We are partnering with Dallas Down River and the Carrollton Evening Lions Club to provide this fun way to clean the river, educate the participants about stormwater pollution and canoe safety and get to know the river in canoes.

Lots of groups are getting the bug ? they want their community to be beautiful and where it isn?t – they just go to work. Over the weekend, Team-Me USA got an energetic group together to clean the greenbelt close to Frankford Road and Josey Lane.

Team-Me USA is a non-profit begun by Tony Owens to help teens prepare for responsible adulthood and build the skills they need to negotiate a rapidly changing society. Just begun in January, their mission is a good one: ?to build character and to help teens develop the leadership skills that greatly affect their ability to make positive decisions and avoid the pitfalls that could place them at risk.?

A community cleanup is a perfect way to take responsibility for where you live while having a huge impact. Bobby Brady, Parks Dept. for the City of Carrollton, directed the group to this greenbelt because it?s very hard for the City staff to keep up with all the maintenance; especially with all the rain we had this spring.

Partnering with Keep Carrollton Beautiful was also a great decision because it netted them trash bags, surgical gloves and pickers. ?Groups like this are perfect examples of what it means to take responsibility in your own community. What we found was that the City was doing a great job in the greenbelt but the streets could use some help. I hope we can find groups and companies to adopt all the streets with our Adopt-A-Spot program,? said Sharon Goddard, Keep Carrollton Beautiful.

They even separated the recycling from the trash they collected. ?We couldn?t believe that people would use the trails in the beautiful greenbelt for walking or jogging or picnicking and then LEAVE their water bottle!? Many, many people did!

To contact Team-Me USA, go to www.Team-MeUSA.com and find out about their other great programs for teens. To find out about the up coming Trinity River Trash Bash and Texas Recycles Day hosted by Keep Carrollton Beautiful, go to www.KeepCarrolltonBeautiful.org. Maybe people will learn to PICK UP THEIR OWN TRASH.