Trash-Off Volunteers Were Amazing

On Saturday, it was a beautiful day and Keep Carrollton Beautiful volunteers made sure our streets, parks, greenbelts, streams and lakes are even more beautiful now! Spending their own free time in community service, 270 volunteers collected 9,740 pounds of litter and debris from 34 sites in Carrollton. “We had individual volunteers and scouts and schools and churches and neighborhoods this year. They focused their amazing ‘can do’ attitudes to plan, set up, collect trash and break down our event. We could do nothing without their beautiful spirits.” said Sharon Goddard.

The Don’t Mess With Texas Trash-Off event was a grassroots partnership with Keep America Beautiful, Keep Texas Beautiful and the Texas Department of Transportation - with 340 affiliates cleaning all over Texas. All of America should be looking pretty good today!

Locally, the Trash-Off was Keep Carrollton Beautiful’s sixth annual participation. The event is just one of many activities they host or empower during the three month Great American Cleanup. Keep Carrollton Beautiful is working with many schools, neighborhoods and corporate teams to supply smaller events during this time.

Thanks to Albertsons at Josey and Keller Springs and at Old Denton and Hebron the volunteers didn’t go away hungry. Albertsons thinks that “it’s important to be good neighbors and give back to our communities…..to improve all of our lives”. As a great corporate citizen, they have supported Keep Carrollton Beautiful since its inception in 2004. “I hope that the citizens of Carrollton won’t let this valuable asset get pushed out of our community by stiff competition” said the director of Keep Carrollton Beautiful.

Dr. Pepper Snapple Group’s representative, Bill Kirkland, has also been supporting Keep Carrollton Beautiful since its beginning. “We (DPSG) have a proud, longstanding heritage of caring ... for our consumers, our customers, our employees and our neighbors in the communities where we live and do business across the United States… caring is at the heart of our business, shaping our values and the importance we place on corporate social responsibility…” Dr. Pepper really helped out at the Trash-Off making sure none of the hard working volunteers went thirsty.

Keep Carrollton Beautiful could never accommodate so many volunteers without the loyal and enthusiastic support of the Carrollton Evening Lions Club. These Lions are some of the community’s most steadfast local servants. Their website says “When it comes to meeting challenges, our response is simple: We serve…in regions battered by natural disaster, in schools and in eyeglass recycling centers, Lions are at work, helping, leading, planning and supporting…We want everyone to see a better tomorrow…we support vision screenings, eye banks and eyeglass recycling…We believe everyone deserves a healthy life…providing health programs for hearing loss, diabetes prevention and improving the health of children and adults around the world.” “Our Carrollton Evening Lions Club lovingly cooks the best hot dogs in Texas! And always with a smile.” said Sharon Goddard.

Thanks to the many volunteers, this year’s Trash-Off was a roaring success. The people involved know who they are and are very much appreciated. If you’d like to help Keep Carrollton Beautiful, go to their website www.KeepCaroolltonBeautiful.org and join.

Another fun way you can help is by bidding on their Don’t Mess With Texas Trash-Off On-Line Auction. The auction will raise funds for their programs and you can still bid through April 8.
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