The Power of One, Across America

Beautification in ChesapeakeThere are a number of signature events that we really like to get behind.  We are proud to help many each year with our 30 Grants in Thirty Days program.  We got to spearhead an initiative last year at the Richmond Folk Festival that turned it into a green bonanza, with recycling, cigarette litter prevention and thousands signing our pledge to Keep Virginia Beautiful.   One of the things that really set things moving last year was America Recycles Day.  In addition to the many Virginians who did their part, we were able to pitch in (with some help from Dominion Virginia Power and Virginia Green!) to begin installing recycling bins in all of our State Parks.

Possible our biggest impact, though, came with the Great American Cleanup National Days of Action.  We established some great partnerships with the United States Military, corporate partners like WalMart and Farm Fresh, and joined askHRgreen to get things going in the Hampton Roads area, where a ton of people joined us over the course of a few days to clean, plant, paint, beautify, and share our commitment towards making our state better. Great American Cleanup

But many of these actions started with the work of one person.  And that person was most often someone just like you.

Our parent organization, Keep America Beautiful, is starting to spread the message about this year’s Great American Cleanup (GAC).  The GAC begins now and runs through Friday, May 31, 2013.  Recently, they shared some details about the 2012 GAC:

  • Over two million people got the message to get in gear and help to recycle.
  • Over fifteen hundred events were organized across the country.
  • Over sixteen thousand groups like us hosted events.
  • Almost 100,000 took the pledge to do more in 2013.

As big as last year was, consider that the previous year, 2011, saw almost 4 million volunteers spent over 5 million hours participating in the GAC.  And our numbers keep getting better.  For a nation that wasn’t very good at it, we’ve grown to recovering over 30% of all of our waste.  That means over 82 million tons of material.  Part of that was 53 billion aluminum cans, 3 million tons of glass, and enough paper to cover almost 30,000 football fields three feet deep.  That’s a lot of paper. Cleanup in Hampton Roads

The key to all of these amazing facts and figures, and the thing that drives these numbers upward, is the participation of a single individual:  You.  We’re certain that we can count on your help this year to Keep Virginia Beautiful.