Exciting Things in Keep Virginia Beautiful World
There’s a ton of cool and exciting stuff going on around Keep Virginia Beautiful. First things first: We’ve updated our website. When we first launched it, we designed it to be sort of a social network. We encouraged you to create your own events, write blogs about your love of Virginia, and communicate with others who share our mission. We found that most of our users were coming for basic information about things to do, ways to access our grants and programs, and to keep up-to-date with green and sustainable initiatives around the Commonwealth. The new design makes it much easier for you to do just that. This is especially true with our Events page – it’s more streamlined, and the new map lets you quickly and easily find something clean and green to do in your neck of the woods. Use the website, our Facebook page, or our Twitter, and let us know what you think. Keep in mind, we just relaunched it, so you may see a bell or whistle that isn’t yet up to speed.
We’ve also added something pretty cool to our GIVE 60 page. GIVE 60 was launched last year to celebrate our Sixtieth Anniversary, and gives you the opportunity to GIVE 60 for Virginia. That means 60 seconds to pick up someone’s litter, 60 minutes worth of planting flowers or beautifying your neighborhood, or a gift of 60 dollars to help us with initiatives like our 30 in 30 Grant. While you have no obligation to follow through with your commitment, if you register on the GIVE 60 page, you can enter to win a 60-inch television. This came to us courtesy of one of our long-time supporters, Walmart. We also have an upcoming promotion with our friends at Coors Light, whereby they’ll be donating a portion of the sale of every case of Coors Light aluminums to our programs. Last year they did this around Richmond, but this year it will be state-wide, so look for our ad in participating retailers.
We’re also working with our parent organization, Keep America Beautiful on a great program. On the 22nd, we’ll all jump in for the Great American Cleanup. If you’re curious, April 22nd is Earth Day, so it’s important to us. While we feel that every day is Earth Day, on the 22nd, we join Keep America Beautiful in asking everyone to do something good for our environment. If you’re not sure what to get into, check our Events Page or look at one of our Impact Areas.
We’re also working with Enrichmond and TFC Recycling to promote the world’s largest recycled sculpture. The goal is to gather at least 110,000 aluminum cans and create an enormous LOVE sculpture. This is an easy and beautiful way to recycle your aluminum cans, and the finished sculpture will be unveiled at Earth Day Richmond on April 26th. Click here for a list of collection centers, and think about this when you pick up those Coors Lights.
Lastly, we’re putting our money where our mouth is when it comes to bringing tourism dollars to Virginia. At the end of April and into the first week of May, thousands of collegiate cyclists will take to the roads in Central Virginia for the USA Cycling National Collegiate Championships. In addition to the riders, thousands of fans, supporters, teams, and journalists will descend on the Commonwealth, and they’ll be bringing their money with them. This will go a long way towards promoting the beauty of Virginia, and will also be a great warm-up for 2015. In September of 2015, Richmond will be home base for 9 days of world-class cycling. The World Road Cycling Championships will bring 1,500 riders, their teams, and an expected 450,000 spectators. An estimated 300 million will watch televised coverage of the best riders in the world rushing the streets of Central Virginia. We were asked to serve on the board and act as advisors. We’ll be offering assistance and programs to help make these events sustainable, clean, and a great representation of what makes our Commonwealth so beautiful. We’re also helping them to solicit volunteers for the events.
So start today by Giving 60, and be sure to share your successes on Caught in a Beautiful Act. We’ve much to do.