Chapters: Report Activities for Great American Cleanup
Phi Theta Kappa chapters are encouraged to report
Great American Cleanup activities by June 23. The Great American Cleanup
is sponsored by Keep
America Beautiful, Phi Theta Kappa's 2008-2010 International
Service Program partner.
Scheduled annually from
March through May, the Great American Cleanup involves some 2.5 million
people who together volunteer more than 8 million hours to clean, beautify
and improve more than 17,000 communities during 30,000 events held throughout
the United States.
Among them were Phi Theta Kappa chapter officers
at the University of New Mexico-Valencia Campus, who worked with the local
affiliate for Keep America Beautiful and the city manager for Los Lunas
to clean up a local park. Volunteers represented all campus student organizations.
Chapter members at Northeast Mississippi Community College
recently partnered with volunteers from the campus DECA and the Baptist
Student Union organizations in a Great American Cleanup initiative on
campus.
Phi Theta Kappa recently announced that the International
Service Program partnership with Keep America Beautiful, Operation
Green: Improving Our Communities, would be extended through 2010.
Chapters currently enrolled as Chapters
of Service, indicating their participation in the International
Service Program, do not have to re-enroll to continue their participation.
Operation Green also served as the Society's International Service Program
for 2006-2008.
A chapter that has not enrolled, or a chapter
that wishes to update their Operation Green focus areas, should complete
the online Chapter
of Service form.
Focus areas for Operation Green include
Education
and Raising Awareness, Recycling,
Beautification
and Clean
Communities. To assist chapters in planning activities, Keep
America Beautiful provides an online Cigarette
Litter Prevention Guide, dedicated to cleaning up the most littered
item in America, and a Graffiti
Hurts website, with resources for organizing a task force and
clean-up.
Among successful environmental initiatives was
the 2007-2008 International Officers' challenge to chapters to erase
1,000 tons of carbon, to offset the carbon footprint of the 2007 International
Convention. Chapters have erased more than 1,068 tons to date, and chapters
may continue to report
progress.
