The Great American Cleanup Needs You!
Now is the time to mobilize your chapter for the Great American Cleanup™, to be held March 1 - May 31, 2007. Sponsored annually by Keep America Beautiful, our current International Service Program partner, the Great American Cleanup is the nation's largest community improvement program, built on a foundation of individual responsibility and civic pride. In 2006, the program mobilized more than 2 million volunteers in over 15,000 communities who participated in 30,000 community improvement events.
Participate in the Great American Cleanup (GAC) by simply planning or joining an Operation Green activity in any of the International Service Program's four focus areas: Education/Awareness, Recycling, Beautification and Clean Communities.
Steps to Success
1) Find a local GAC participating organization at www.kab.org, or plan your own event and register it with Keep America Beautiful by April 15, 2007. Participants will receive program materials based upon availability.
2) Utilize the GAC Program Kit, including logos and artwork, to advertise your event.
3) Conduct the event/project, keeping track of the number of volunteers and the successful outcomes of your event, such as pounds of litter collected, number of trees/flowers planted, number of graffiti sites cleaned up, etc.
4) Celebrate your success and thank volunteers for their hard work.
5) Submit the online wrap-up report to Keep America Beautiful by June 23, 2007.
Great American Cleanup Ideas
- Renovate a local park that is in disrepair.
- Work with organizers on your campus or in your community to make an existing event litter-free. Consider high school proms, spring flings, graduations, sporting events, etc.
- Organize a paint-out with family and friends, and create a community paintbrush mural over a wall of illegal graffiti.
- Create a trash fishing contest in your waterway to increase awareness about illegal dumping and littering.
- Hold an "e-cycling" event to collect old cell phones, computers, laptops and other electronic equipment.
- Create a beautiful green space by planting trees and shrubs in an area needing improvement.
- Hold a clothing drive to donate gently used clothes to needy organizations and shelters.
- Help your library establish an environmental corner that offers books and other educational materials about taking care of the Earth.
- Organize a roadway litter cleanup.
- Utilize the Clean Sweep USA website at www.kab.org to host an educational workshop for elementary students.
- Sponsor a fundraiser and donate the proceeds to Keep America Beautiful-GAC or another environmental group of your choosing.
- Hold an environmental fair with exhibitors who provide resources and solutions for "green living."
PR Questions? Call the Keep America Beautiful GAC Hotline: 203.323.8987, extension 817, or for general program questions contact gac@kab.org. At Phi Theta Kappa, contact Director of Programs Jennifer Stanford at or 601.984.3532.
