Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful Encourages Locals to Take Part in 20th Anniversary of the Nation’s Largest Community Improvement Program from March 1-May 31, 2018
Duluth, Georgia, February 27, 2018 (Press Release) – Launched by Keep America Beautiful in 1999, Great American Cleanup is celebrating its 20th anniversary as the nation’s largest community improvement program. Local Keep America Beautiful affiliate, Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful (GCB) hopes to celebrate this incredible milestone by making this year’s event bigger and better than ever before right here at home. Great American Cleanup – Gwinnett Challenge is Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful’s answer to the nationwide initiative – during which local residents, schools, organizations, civic groups and businesses are encouraged to take part in a variety of community improvement projects. Ranging from starting a community garden to creating a video about sustainability, projects must be completed between March 1 and May 31, 2018. Project submissions are due by June 8, 2018. Submitted projects will be reviewed by the staff at Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful and the three most outstanding submissions will be selected to win a cash prize of $500 each.
To get started, participants will select a category from the Great American Cleanup Page on the Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful website at www.gwinnettcb.org, complete the project, report their results, share their photos and cross their fingers in the hopes that their project will be selected as one of the winners. Anyone who has questions is welcome to email GCB Program Manager Sumner Gann at sgann@gwinnettcb.org. Before beginning their project, participants are encouraged to “take the pledge” – promising to change habits and practices at home, school, work, and play, and to be environmental stewards – caring for the land, water, and community every day. Additional winners will be selected from new pledges – one individual to win $100 and one school to win $200! To be considered for those prizes, individual participants and Gwinnett County schools are asked to take an imaginative “selfie” with their completed pledges, then post it to either Facebook or Instagram and tag @GwinnettClean&Beautiful. The more creative the images and more impactful the pledges are, the greater their chance to win. Pledges are also accepted online through the Great American Cleanup Page on the Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful website.
GCB Executive Director, Schelly Marlatt relayed, “The purpose of Great American Cleanup – Gwinnett Challenge is not merely to get people involved in the beautification and stewardship of their local community over a three-month period, but also to get them thinking and really INVESTING in their community for the long-term. In addition to reaping the rewards that come from doing something that positively effects the environment, three lucky winners will be selected to win cash prizes for the dedication they show and the impact they make. We really applaud innovation at Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful, so we’ll be looking for Great American Cleanup participants who create a project of their own imagining that is beneficial to Gwinnett County and the environment.”
During Great American Cleanup – Gwinnett Challenge 2017, Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful engaged and educated 5,201 participants in 286 community improvement projects completed over the course of just 92 days resulting in:
- The collection of 60,640 pounds of recyclables, preventing them from entering a landfill
- The beautification of 365 miles of roadway
- The removal of 60,640 pounds of litter from roadsides and waterways
- The collection of 732 books – all donated to charity
- The creation of 30 bouquets of flowers made from plastic water bottles – all given to cancer patients
About Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful: Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful Services, Inc. (GCB) is a Keep America Beautiful affiliate and award-winning 501(c)(3) charitable organization. It boasts an expansive community-based network dedicated to finding long-term solutions to environmental and quality of life issues through individual action. The organization is guided by a Citizens Advisory Board that represents all sectors of the Gwinnett County community. A nationally recognized leader in creating cleaner, greener and more livable communities throughout Gwinnett, GCB involves more than 100,000 volunteers annually to clean and restore public places, recycle more, protect watersheds and develop the next generation of environmental stewards. To learn more about Gwinnett Clean & Beautiful, please visit www.GwinnettCB.org.
