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On April 27th, the Keep Brownwood Beautiful 2nd Annual Earth Day 5K race took off without a hitch. The race was held at the Early Town Center Park. This Earth Day race was the perfect occasion to celebrate the accomplishment and beauty of Early's new park. The people in Brown County hit the outdoors. Blessed, the rain waited so racers and family could enjoy the activities. Racers were provided with earth-friendly swag bags thanks to our sponsors and donors, such as Brownwoods Chick-fil-A. The race participants doubled from last year and were even accompanied by our very own Recycling Rex. Even though Rex put up a good effort, he just couldn't keep up with our top runners, who began finishing just 17 minutes after it started. Plenty of racer participants were thankful the Medical Reserve Corps was handing out water donated by United Supermarket to either quench their thirst or just put out the fire of their running shoes. Crossfit Longma was there, providing the post-race refreshments, hydrating those in need. Several kids participated in the race or were family members' biggest pep squad, cheering and holding motivating signs. 3M provided kites, and the lovely Earth provided the perfect wind to fly them. With the beautiful space the Early Town Center Park presents, even Recycling Rex had room to give it a try. Lemongrass provided tea and if you have never tried them you are definitely missing out. Their mango tea was a top favorite, especially with Rex, who was caught trying to run off with a gallon of it. The families who stuck around after the race had the opportunity to get their face painted by Art-Z. Lots of fun ideas were painted, one particular “eyes wide open”. A planting demo was performed, teaching how to make Wildflower seed bombs. Recently, the Earth gave us rain, which is giving them the perfect time to drop those seed bombs. The race was a huge success, filled with sweat, laughter, and lots of fun. We would like to thank everyone who made this event what it was; Crossfit Longma, Brownwoods Medical Reserve Corps, Art-Z, Lemongrass, Chick-fil-A, United Supermarket, our State Park and all the volunteers. None of this would have been possible without our gracious sponsors, 3M and Hendricks. We thank them for their continuous support of our non-profit organization, Keep Brownwood Beautiful. Our own Earth Day 5K event coordinator, Katie, was so excited about how the event turned out she was already making plans for next year just a day later. We hope to see you in 2025.
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Keep Brownwood Beautiful enjoyed partnering with Brown County Better Living for Texans at the "Walk Across Texas" Kick Off! Walk Across Texas! Adult is an eight-week program designed to help Texans establish the habit of regular physical activity. Each adult team may include up to 8 team members, all working together to reach the 832-mile goal to make their way across the state of Texas. With the weather beginning to cool, it is a great time to get active outside by taking walks and enjoying our parks and community. Let's make sure our local landscapes are in shape and looking their best by removing litter every time we get a chance. Contact Keep Brownwood Beautiful for litter pickup tools. Our Sept 4th kick-off event was fun! We joined hands with Keep Brownwood Beautiful to clean up our park and river. Thank you to the 4-H Center for lending us the kayaks. We had a nice stretch and mile walk led by Mayra Martinez from Brownwood Fitness and Boys and Girls Club, and we are happy to have Coach Stefenia Phipps from Coggin Elementary School for the 2nd year as we embark on our Making a Healthier Me! youth series journey. Together, we're making our community healthier! As you may already know, our Neighbor to Neighbor program is meant to help elderly, disabled, and veterans who fit certain criteria with code violations free of charge. Over the weekend we accomplished a Neighbor to Neighbor project for a sweet elderly woman. While I don't publish our client's names, I can set the scene a little. Our "Neighbor" is almost 90 years old, a widow, and a retired teacher who found herself unable to keep up with her yard. Things can get out of hand before you know it and you just need someone to help. Luckily, Code Enforcement knows about our program and told her about us and put us in contact with her. It took a little while but we were able to get together volunteers, donors, and partners to help her out before her deadline. Not all of our Neighbor to Neighbor projects are huge, but this one was... and in this heat it was that much more daunting. Thankfully, we were able to get in early and divide our time over two days. Our crews did some very hard work and we are deeply thankful for their generosity and giving souls. I will also never forget sitting and holding this neighbor's hand while the work went on. She was overwhelmed and grateful for the volunteers and the energy they put into helping her with something she thought was beyond her grasp. And that's what I call "Keeping Brownwood a little more than just Beautiful. Wrapping up our grant reports and preparing to continue with our new programs... In these few months our little trailer has recycled just over 1/4 ton of plastic drink bottles and aluminum cans! That was just part of a school year, we're ready to start with a full school year of recycling! Our student council handbooks are printed and we're ready to start this year off right. Thank you to: Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages and Keep Texas Beautiful, our BISD HS Student Council Committee, our local news sources for sharing our info, and everyone who has participated. We're ready to do more!  If you haven't noticed our most recent billboard... let me tell you about it...
 TravelersWe are fortunate to be able to interact with a variety of people from all walks of life at In-Town Recycling. We absolutely look forward to seeing our regulars twice a month and we see new faces that we hope will become regulars but, once in a blue moon, you may meet someone you're pretty sure you'll never see again... a traveler, just passing through. Well this Saturday was that once in a blue moon and I met Sharon. Sharon is one of "Two Tired Teachers," sisters that have retired from teaching and spend time traveling together and started a YouTube channel about their time RVing. I learned about the obstacles of habitual recycling within that lifestyle. Arriving at a new location it isn't usually clear where or even if there is an easily accessible recycling station available. Even more so than that it is, at the very least, just not practical to hold on to your recycling, cans, bottles, etc. in such cramped quarters until you do find a place. We had a great conversation about more than just recycling. I don't know if she'll remember me but, I'll definitely remember her. Here's a link to their YouTube if you want to check them out. www.youtube.com/@TwoTiredTeachers 
 Who Keeps Brownwood Beautiful? We all do, except when we don't. This statement isn't meant to point fingers or anything like that, it's just an observation. Thursday, I picked up litter with a great group from Kohler. We picked up 8 bags of litter including a hypodermic needle all in one short hour. As many cigarette butts as we picked up, there are still hundreds in that small area (approximately 900 sq. ft.), there was also a notable amount of disinfectant wipes in the vicinity. Despite the yucky part, it was a beautiful day and we had a pretty good time. I heard laughing and observed a little friendly competition in regards to who's bag was fuller. That was their second time volunteering with us and they are planning to schedule another day. If you have a group of family, friends, or coworkers that would like to do a cleanup let us know and we'll get you scheduled and set up. Maybe there's a neglected area you drive by everyday that you would like to get spruced up, or maybe your neighborhood could use some spiffing up... get a few people together and contact us. Other ways you can help reduce litter are making sure you secure trash in a designated receptacle and teach your children to do the same. Make sure there is not loose litter in the bed of your truck. Make sure your trash is securely bagged before you put it in the dumpster or trash can. And last but not least, don't litter. Hey, stuff happens... sometimes it's windy and there's no way on this green earth that you're going to be able to catch that napkin or receipt that just blew away... Don't beat yourself up, make a mental note of what went wrong so it doesn't happen next time and just pick up a couple of pieces of trash you come across that someone else dropped. So, as for the "except when we don't" part of the sentence above... while I was picking up trash, I sat an empty laundry jug down and when I came back to pick it up it was gone! It didn't seem windy enough to blow it away, I looked around and didn't see it... where did it go, I don't know, is it litter now too? Did I just inadvertently litter?! Where ever it is, I'll make a point not to be as careless next time. Hey, we're all in this together. Who keeps Brownwood Beautiful? We all do. The shipment of Recycling Stations for the High School has arrived and been delivered! To get the recycling program started, KBB (Keep Brownwood Beautiful) lent five sets of recycling stations to the school until we could get some purchased specifically for them. We also had posters printed up to hang over the stations and they kicked off with a visit from Recycling Rex. And now, their stations have arrived and been delivered. KBB is so pleased to be able to present these stations to the BISD High School Student Council. There are five stations. Each station has two receptacles, one for aluminum cans and one for plastic drink bottles. One of the stations converts to a transporter for the other stations. The other stations can be broken down and stored or moved on the one transporter/station. We’ve received our grant funds and have begun sprucing up our recycling trailer! The grant budgets for some repairs and sprucing up to the trailer. Thank you to BISD High School Student Volunteers for making quick work of this paint job. Paint New gas springs Tires Wheel blocks Tool Box Today is Texas Recycles Day and we have BIG NEWS!Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages and Keep Texas Beautiful announce
Texas Recycles Day Grant winners 
Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages (CCSWB), a company of Arca Continental, continues to affirm its commitment to sustainability and access to recycling by launching the Texas Recycles Day Grant, in partnership with Keep Texas Beautiful and Keep Texas Recycling. To commemorate Texas Recycles Day on November 15, CCSWB is awarding up to $15,000 in grants for improving recycling access and recycling programs execution across the state. Keep Texas Beautiful affiliates and Keep Texas Recycling members were invited to submit a proposal for monetary assistance to help strengthen their existing recycling programs. CCSWB is happy to celebrate the winners of the 2022 Texas Recycles Day grants: ● Alpine ● Brownwood ● Fort Clark Springs ● Midland ● San Marcos ● White Settlement When PET is recycled, it can be broken down, cleaned, and reground into small flakes used to make new PET bottles that can then be recycled over and over again. The process of making PET bottles with recycled PET material requires less energy and emits fewer GHGs than creating a new bottle using virgin, petroleum-based sources, as well as keeping these materials out of the landfill. Over the last two years, CCSWB has proactively invested in supporting recycling access, as well as innovation to design more resource-efficient packaging. This has allowed CCSWB to step up use of recycled PET content in its bottles – increasing from 1.9% in 2019 to 25% in 2020 and 50% from 2021 onward. “We are thankful for Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages who support our efforts to promote recycling in communities around Texas,” says Suzanne Kho, Executive Director of Keep Texas Beautiful. “Through our Keep Texas Recycling program, we work to support recycling in rural communities like those represented by the Texas Recycle Day Grant winners. We’re excited to see the impact these projects will have in expanding recycling in their communities.” [Quote from Affiliate / Keep Texas Recycling Member] About CCSWB Dallas-based Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages (CCSWB), a company of Arca Continental, is one of the largest Coca-Cola bottlers in the United States. CCSWB produces, markets and distributes Coca-Cola brands throughout Texas and parts of New Mexico, Oklahoma and Arkansas. The company employs more than 8,000 associates who operate seven production plants and 37 distribution facilities, serving more than 31 million consumers. Headquartered in Monterrey, Mexico, Arca Continental is one of the largest Coca-Cola bottlers in the world with an outstanding history spanning more than 91 years. Within its Coca-Cola franchise, Arca Continental serves a population of more than 118 million in the northern and western parts of Mexico, as well as the northern region of Argentina, Ecuador, Peru and the Southwestern United States. Arca Continental also produces and markets snacks under the brand names Wise in the United States, Bokados in Mexico and Inalecsa in Ecuador. For more information, visit www.cocacolaswb.com and www.arcacontal.com, and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. About Keep Texas Beautiful Keep Texas Beautiful (KTB) is a non-profit organization dedicated to making Texas the best place to live, work, and play by deploying resources for community improvement projects, clean-ups, and youth engagement efforts across the state. Through our Keep Texas Recycling program, we provide assistance and education to support recycling in rural and underserved communities. Everything we do is focused on mobilizing volunteers to take action by providing them with tools, resources, and training. Our fieldwork includes research on best practices for litter reduction along with the development of community programs to prevent the flow of litter to the Gulf. Founded in 1967, Keep Texas Beautiful’s work is driven by its network of nearly 300 affiliate member communities, volunteers, and supporters that reach 17 million Texans annually. For more information and to find your closest affiliate, visit www.ktb.org. Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. |
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