LaGrange honored by Keep Georgia Beautiful Foundation for litter pick-up

Published 8:19 pm Wednesday, December 19, 2018

The City of LaGrange is being honored by the Keep Georgia Foundation for the city’s “Leaving LaGrange Better Than We Found It” litter pick-up campaign.

The City of LaGrange received second place in both the State Award, Litter Prevention – Government Agency category and the State Award, Overall Community Improvement – Government Agency category at the 2018 Keep Georgia Beautiful Foundation Awards.

The Keep Georgia Beautiful Foundation, an affiliate of the national Keep America Beautiful program, held its annual convention and awards celebration in Macon recently. KGBF also celebrated 40 years of preventing litter, reducing waste, providing water education and beautifying public spaces across the state.

“We’re proud of the strides we’ve made toward sustainability over the last 40 years,” Keep Georgia Beautiful Foundation Executive Director Natalie Johnston-Russell said. “It has been an honor welcoming members of our network to celebrate this milestone together.”

The annual awards ceremony recognized outstanding efforts in the areas of litter prevention, waste reduction and recycling, community beautification and overall community improvement. Individual awards are presented to a public works official, law enforcement officer, elected official, student, male volunteer, female volunteer and executive director of the year.

“It’s exciting to consider the scale and impact of our affiliates over the last four decades,” Keep Georgia Beautiful Foundation Board President Michael Power said. “None of it would be possible without the individuals, schools, corporations, nonprofits and government agencies that come together to improve our communities.”

LaGrange City Manager Meg Kelsey wanted to send a message to the community that the City of LaGrange is serious about cleaning up litter and rolled out the city’s campaign, “Leaving LaGrange Better Than We Found It.” The City of LaGrange closed non-essential business the morning of April 20 and nearly 400 employees picked up trash throughout the community.

The city continues to have monthly litter pick-up events throughout the community. The public is invited to join city employees in this initiative. 

The city works closely with Keep Troup Beautiful on these litter pick-up events. 

“Getting the community to stop littering is a slow, educational process and we feel we’re making a dent in it one step at a time,” LaGrange City Manager Meg Kelsey said. 

“I think our initiative has been successful because we are joining the community with our city staff and youth council members – all pulling together for a common cause. At the end of the day we are picking up litter in our community and helping our environment.” 

If you would like to have a litter clean up in your neighborhood contact Scott Landa with Keep Troup Beautiful. For more information go to www.keeptroupbeautiful.com or call (706) 884-9922.