April Is Time to Clean-up Community
The Great American Cleanup is an annual, nationwide, community improvement campaign started by Keep America Beautiful in 1999.
Starting this week through the end of April, The Monticello News will join the Monticello-Jasper County Chamber of Commerce and the Department of Community Affairs in promoting different ways to clean up our community.
Each April, thousands of Georgians celebrate “Keep Georgia Beautiful Month” by cleaning, restoring, and beautifying their communities as part of the cleanup. In 2004, more than 40,000 Georgians volunteered their time (over 144,000 hours).
The results were overwhelming, volunteers collected more than 6.5 million pounds of trash from their communities.
But they didn’t stop there, during the cleanup, volunteers also painted over graffiti, collected scrap tires, repaired homes and businesses, planted trees, flowers, plants and shrubs to beautify public spaces, held recycling drives, and spruced up parks.
In Jasper County, each local club, organization, church group, neighborhood and individual is encouraged to take part in making this campaign a success right here at home in our great community, said Maggie Potter, executive director of the COC.
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Over the next month, everyone is encouraged to plan a beautification event no matter how big or small. This is an excellent way to take advantage of some spring weather and give back to the community in the form of volunteer hours.
It can be as simple as picking up the trash along your street or planting some spring flowers in your yard. After all, Monticello was featured in Southern Living’s March edition as a place to visit in the spring because of all the beautiful blooms.
To make getting started easier, free trash bags are available at the Chamber of Commerce office on the Monticello Square for anyone wanting to participate in a clean-up event. All that is asked in return is that you let us know about your clean-up event so we can tell everyone what a great job you are doing to make Jasper County a great place to live, said Mrs. Potter.
For more information, contact Mrs. Potter at the COC, 706-468-8994 or pick up bags at 119 Washington Street, on the Square, adjacent to Monticello City Hall.