Keep America Beautiful, the nation’s iconic community improvement nonprofit organization, presented Keep Irving Beautiful with its 2018 President’s Circle Award recognition at Keep America Beautiful’s recent National Conference, which took place in Baltimore, Maryland. The President’s Circle Award recognizes exemplary performance by certified affiliates of Keep America Beautiful in creating clean, green and beautiful communities.
In qualifying for the President’s Circle Award, Keep Irving Beautiful has met Keep America Beautiful’s standards of merit by conducting an annual Community Appearance Index; calculating the affiliate’s cost/benefit ratio; and administering initiatives to end littering, improve recycling, and beautify Irving’s community. Keep Irving Beautiful is one of Keep America Beautiful’s more than 600 community-based affiliates whose programs, initiatives and efforts, supported by millions of volunteers, help transform public spaces into beautiful places.
“One of the nation’s most effective grassroots community resources is local affiliates, which engage millions of Americans in volunteer service each year,” said Keep America Beautiful President and CEO Helen Lowman. “Keep America Beautiful’s affiliates provide real solutions that help create communities that are socially connected, environmentally healthy and economically sound. These affiliates enrich the communities they serve and help create opportunities for Americans to do beautiful things.”
Community Appearance Index-Litter Index: The Keep America Beautiful Community Appearance Index-Litter Index is a tool used by its affiliates to visually assess overall appearance of communities through indicators such as litter, illegal signs, graffiti, abandoned or junk vehicles, and outside storage. A team of community, business and government representatives conduct the visual analysis using a scoring system ranging from 1-4, where the No. 1 is rated as no litter, and No. 4 is rated as extremely littered. Each year, affiliates grade their communities during a drive-by examination of the same areas at the same time of the year. This provides an indication of the success of each community’s anti-littering education and other anti-littering programs.
Cost/Benefit Analysis: This measurement tool enables Keep America Beautiful affiliates to demonstrate their ability to leverage community resources by determining the dollar value returned to the community for every dollar invested by the government.
The Keep America Beautiful National Conference, its premier educational and networking event, brought together more than 350 leaders from Keep America Beautiful’s national network of affiliates, business leaders, policymakers and other experts who shared innovative ideas and proven strategies to help improve America’s communities.
The 2018 Keep America Beautiful National Conference was made possible through the support of some of America’s leading companies, including: Leadership Sponsors - Altria and Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company; Stewardship Sponsor -Anheuser-Busch; and Strategic Sponsors - Keurig Dr Pepper, PepsiCo and Steel Recycling Institute. Scholarships are provided by Altria and PepsiCo.
