Billboard Design Contest Winner for 2018 Announced

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Ms. Martinez’s design includes the phrase “I want to be recycled!” one of the themes of the contest. The artwork is an illustration of recyclables lining up to jump into a recycling bin. They are happy and excited to be turned into new, useful objects instead of being wasted.

Valley Point Middle School 6th grader, Alicia Martinez, is the overall winner of the 2018 America Recycles Day Billboard Design Contest hosted by the Dalton-Whitfield Solid Waste Authority’s program Target Recycling at School. The winning design will be displayed on two billboards in Whitfield County (one on Cleveland Hwy., and the other on E. Walnut Ave.) during the month of November.

The billboard design contest, now in its ninth year, has a 1st place winner from each grade level including 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. The three winners, listed below, received a certificate of participation and a gift bag with items made from recycled materials. The first place overall, who is the winner of the billboard, was selected from the first-place design from each grade level.

 

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Winners for 2018

The winners all from Valley Point Middle that placed in the America Recycles Day Billboard Design Contest for 2018. From left to right: Alicia Martinez, Rhonda Burdette filling in for Javier Ayabar, and Javiar Torres.

 

·         1st Place in 6th grade and Overall Winner –Alicia Martinez, Valley Point Middle School

·         1st Place in 7th grade – Javier J. Torres, Valley Point Middle School

·         1st  Place in 8th grade - Javier Ayabar–, Valley Point Middle School

 

Target Recycling at School provides recycling collection services and environmental education opportunities to schools in Whitfield County. For more information, call 706-278-5001 or visit www.DWSWA.org.

 

America Recycles Day is a community-driven event dedicated to promoting recycling awareness, commitment, and action in the U.S. thru its partnership with Keep America Beautiful. It’s celebrated annually on November 15. For more information on recycling, and to take the pledge to #BeRecycled visit www.AmericaRecyclesDay.org

 

2018 School Beautification Grant Winners

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(Dalton, GA, September 21, 2018) – Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful is pleased to announce the winners of the third annual School Beautification Grants for 2018. The committee for Beautification and Community Greening established the grant program in celebration of National Planting Day, which took place September 8 and is celebrated through the end of October.

Public and private schools in the Dalton, GA and Whitfield County were invited to apply for funding to implement a project related to planting native plants and beautifying the community. Each project aims to improve the visual aspects of the facility or provide an educational opportunity related to plants. The grants range from $250 to $500 which encompassed $83 to each team of one grade.

This year the following five schools were awarded a grant for their National Planting Day project:

1.    Coahulla Creek High School: Creating the Captivating Courtyard of Coahulla Creek

2.    New Hope Middle School: Georgia Native Plants Beautification Project

3.    Park Creek Elementary School: Berry Beautiful

4.    Morris Innovative High School: MIHS Pep Club Garden and Picnic Area

5.    Dalton Middle School: Team Trees

 

Projects will be completed by December 3 and each recipient will submit a project summary by December 21 to showcase their work. Visit Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful’s website www.KeepDaltonWhitfieldBeautiful.org or follow them on Facebook to get updates on the progress of these projects.  

National Planting Day is celebrated annually by Keep America Beautiful in the fall as an opportunity to encourage volunteers to plant native species restoring ecological balance to the environment while creating greener, more beautiful communities. Learn more about this event at www.kab.org.

Turn Up, Clean-Up Series

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Do you enjoy living in a beautiful town? Are you looking to help volunteer more in your community? Then join us at the new Burr Park at 6:00 p.m. on July 27th and August 24th to grab some litter cleanup supplies and then we will hit the streets of downtown to clean up! Afterward, everyone will drop off their bags at Burr Park and celebrate a job well done! We'll listen to the Downtown Dalton Summer Music Series and then help clean-up Burr Park afterward and keep Downtown Dalton looking spiffy all weekend. The Turn Up, Clean-Up series is a joint effort between Believe Greater Dalton and Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful. 

Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful Establishes Endowment Fund

Pictured L-R: David Aft, president of the Community Foundation of Northwest Georgia, meet with board members from Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful recently to establish an endowment fund. Also pictured are board members Clyde Taylor, Phillip Pfe…

Pictured L-R: David Aft, president of the Community Foundation of Northwest Georgia, meet with board members from Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful recently to establish an endowment fund. Also pictured are board members Clyde Taylor, Phillip Pfeifer, Liz Swafford, Anthony Cline, Aaron Marcelli, Patricia Edwards.

Dalton, GA – Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful established an endowment fund with the Community Foundation of Northwest Georgia in February thanks to a matching grant challenge from an anonymous donor. Endowment fund distributions will provide long term support for the non-profit focused on ending litter, beautifying communities, and improving recycling.

 

“Establishing the endowment fund has allowed us to diversify our income sources ensuring that our mission continues regardless of changes in annual fundraising.” said Patricia Edwards, chairperson for the endowment fund committee. “We are thankful for all of the individuals that contributed towards the matching grant goal. Thanks to you we were able to meet the challenge. We are especially grateful to our anonymous benefactor for giving us this opportunity to guarantee that Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful programs continue long into the future.”

 

Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful began in 1989 as the Dalton-Whitfield Clean and Beautiful Commission, and soon after became an official Keep America Beautiful affiliate, and member of the Keep Georgia Beautiful Foundation. The organization is now an independent non-profit with the same mission - to engage local residents in creating a more vibrant community. Board members and volunteers are proud to be a part of a nation-wide effort advancing education and collective action to ensure that beauty is our lasting legacy starting from the local level.

 

Recent activities have included the launch of the new educational campaign “Love it, don’t trash it!” #LiveLitterFree, a refresh of the Adopt-a-Mile program, unveiling of a mural downtown, beautification mini-grants for schools, and the presentation of the Magic of Recycling magic show at seven elementary schools. Longtime community events include the annual Christmas Tree and Electronics Recycling Day, and the Conasauga River Watershed Cleanup.

 

Anyone interested in helping Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful grow their endowment is encouraged to send their donation to the Community Foundation of Northwest Georgia, noting Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful.

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Contact: Liz Swafford, Executive Director

            Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful

(706) 226-6211

Lswafford@dwswa.org

 

 

 

 

Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful Receives Awards for 2015

 

Pictured are several Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful board members with the awards. Front row (left to right): Hailey Delatorre, Shell Underwood, Patricia Edwards, Liz Swafford, and Aaron Marcelli. Top row (left to right): Phillip Pfeifer, Chris Cochran, Joe Thomas, Jennifer Jefferies, Anthony Cline.

(Dalton, GA – May 12, 2016) – Local non-profit Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful received the Governor’s Circle Award on January 26. The statewide awards were presented by Governor Nathan Deal at the State Capitol as part of the Keep Georgia Beautiful Foundation’s Annual Legislative Day.

 

The Governor’s Circle Award recognizes exemplary performance by certified affiliates in reducing litter, minimizing waste and greening local communities. To qualify for the Governor’s Circle Award, affiliates must be in good standing with Keep America Beautiful; conducting an annual Litter Index, calculating the affiliate’s cost/benefit ratio and engaging volunteers to take greater responsibility for their community environment. Additionally, the affiliate must be an active member of the Georgia network. Georgia is the first state in the Keep America Beautiful (KAB) network to create a Governor’s Circle Award modeled on KAB’s national good standing designation.

 

“The affiliates receiving the Governor’s Circle Award represent the best of community improvement efforts”, said Sarah Visser, Executive Director of the Keep Georgia Beautiful Foundation, “they are doing the hard work every day to keep their communities economically vibrant and environmentally sustainable”.

 

Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful also received received the 2015 Keep America Beautiful President Circle Award recognition at Keep America Beautiful’s recent National Conference in Orlando, Florida. The President’s Circle Award recognizes exemplary performance made by certified affiliates of the national nonprofit in creating clean, green and beautiful communities.

 

In qualifying for a President’s Circle Award, Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful has met KAB’s standards of merit by conducting an annual Community Appearance Index, calculating the affiliate’s cost/benefit ratio, and administering activities in the areas of litter prevention, recycling and waste reduction, and beautification and community greening. Established in 1953, KAB consists of a national network of more than 600 community-based affiliates whose programs, initiatives and efforts aim to transform public spaces into beautiful places.

 

“One of Keep America Beautiful’s most effective tools is the work of our grassroots network of affiliate organizations, which has an impact on millions of Americans each year,” said Keep America Beautiful President and CEO Jennifer Jehn. “Our affiliates are providing real solutions that help create communities that are socially connected, environmentally healthy and economically sound.”

 

In 2015 Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful’s volunteer board hosted and facilitated several activities including the annual Christmas Tree and Electronics Recycling Day, Composting Awareness Week, Adopt-a-Mile litter cleanups, Ecumenical Earth Day, Conasauga Watershed River Cleanup, and environmental education sessions for children and adults.

 

During this time the litter prevention committee established the educational campaign “Love it, don’t trash it!” #LiveLitterFree. The recycling committee sponsored the sustainability themed mural “An Earth Worth Saving” located at Thornton Ave. and Waugh St. And, the beautification committee provided grants for school gardens to several local schools among other projects.

 

Visit www.KeepDaltonWhitfieldBeautiful.org to register for the KDWB newsletter or call 706-278-5001 to find out how you can volunteer or participate in events.

 

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About Keep America Beautiful, Inc.

Keep America Beautiful is the nation’s leading nonprofit that brings people together to build and sustain vibrant communities. With a national network of community-based affiliates, we work with millions of volunteers who take action in their communities to transform public spaces into beautiful places. Through our programs and public-private partnerships, we engage individuals to take greater responsibility for improving their community’s environment. To learn how you can donate and take action, visit kab.org, follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, or view us on YouTube.

 

About Keep Georgia Beautiful Foundation (KGBF)

Created in 1978 by Governor George Busbee, Keep Georgia Beautiful (KGB), became the first state affiliate of Keep America Beautiful.  In 2011, the Keep Georgia Beautiful program merged with the Keep Georgia Beautiful Foundation, Inc. which was created in 1985 to promote private sector financial support for worthwhile educational programs that enhance the environment and the quality of life in Georgia. KGBF coordinates a number of environmental efforts including the Great American Cleanup™ and the statewide Bring One for the Chipper Christmas tree recycling program.  The Foundation is based on a fundamental premise that the environmental interests of the state of Georgia and the people who live here are best served when public and private interests work hand-in-hand to achieve common goals. Our connections with the public and private sectors aid us in our mission to support local Keep Georgia Beautiful affiliates as they build and sustainable communities through litter prevention, waste reduction, recycling, water resource management and community greening.  For more information about the KGB Foundation, please visit www.keepgeorgiabeautiful.org or call the office at (404) 679-4910.

 

CONTACT INFORMATION:

 Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful

-       Website: www.KeepDaltonWhitfieldBeautiful.org

-       Facebook: www.facebook.com/keepdaltonwhitfieldbeautiful

-       Office: 706-226-6211