Event Overview

Great American Cleanup Tampa

Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful

April 18, 2009

About two million volunteers in 12,000 communities are expected to join forces this spring as part of a nationwide community improvement effort during the Great America Clean-up.

Keep Hillsborough County Beautiful (KHCB) coordinated the event locally and saw 2,250 volunteers participate during the countywide clean-up on April 18th. KHCB recruited volunteers and local sponsors for the clean-up which took place at several locations around the county.

More than 2,300 volunteers picked up 67,509 pounds of trash including bottles, cans and cigarette butts in 2008. This year, key performance measurements included:

- a total of 7,976 equivalent hours of volunteer contribution
- 63,952 lbs of trash were collected
- 3,260 lbs of recyclables were collected and recycled

“We had a greater turn-out in 2009 to make even bigger impact” said KHCB Executive Director Christine Commerce. “This was a great way to take pride in the community and clean it up at the same time”.

Aquafina provided bottled water beverages to sustain the eco volunteers as they worked throughout the day’s activities. Aquafina also provided recycling bags so that all recyclables collected throughout the day were be properly disposed of and converted.

KHCB originated from a group of concerned residents in Hillsborough County who saw that litter was becoming a problem given metro Tampa’s growth, lack of community pride and limited knowledge of disposal options. The non-profit organization is an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful Inc (KAB). The Great America Clean-up was created to communicate KAB’s message on the need to influence change in attitudes and behavior through hands-on involvement with eco volunteers throughout the country.

www.khbconline.org

www.kab.org

www.myspace.com/keephillscobeautiful