COMMUNITY April is coming fast upon us and hinting at some pretty nice weather, too! Keep Yankton Beautiful welcomes spring each year with our annual Great American Cleanup event. This year’s clean-up is scheduled for Saturday, April 9th at 8:30am, meeting at Memorial Park South Shelter. Last year 126 dedicated volunteers gave 240 hours of their time to cleaning 2,500 pounds of litter and debris from the streets of Yankton for the benefit of our proud community. This year we hope to increase participation and areas cleaned and we need your help! Please consider volunteering your time, it takes a real community effort and the results are well worth it! The Great American Cleanup was launched in 1999 by our national sponsor, Keep America Beautiful. It is the nation's largest community improvement program and takes place annually between March 1st and May 31st. An estimated 3 million volunteers participate nationwide. I am so proud that Yankton is a part of this incredible community-improvement effort. According to studies conducted on behalf of Keep America Beautiful, litter remains a pervasive problem with over 51 billion pieces of litter appearing on U.S. roadways each year (that’s 6,729 items per mile of roadway!) and costing the U.S. more than $11.5 billion! The good news... our clean-ups help! Studies show people are less likely to litter where they don’t see litter; but far more are likely to drop trash where litter and debris already sits. Here in Yankton we have seen a year-over-year improvement in the amount of litter clogging our streets and our waterways. The Chamber routinely fields compliments from guests and visitors on the cleanliness of our fine city! Since our launch 10 years ago, Keep Yankton Beautiful has completed multiple improvement projects along Broadway and 4th Street, including the Dakota Spirit Fountain and the 21st Street Park and trailhead. We have planted hundreds of trees and perennials; supported and encouraged local businesses in improving their own street fronts; and with the help of hundreds of dedicated volunteers over the years, cleaned-up over 40 tons of garbage from our streets and waterways! As Earth Day approaches and we think about our environment and our resources, please consider volunteering for a cleanup. And please utilize your curbside recycling program (or take your recyclables at no cost to the transfer station). Recycling extends the life of our valuable resources, reduces stress on landfills and litter in the environment, and helps create jobs in the US! 6 ■ HERVOICE MARCH/APRIL 2011 Did you know you can recycle your electronics at the Yankton Goodwill store? The Goodwill store sends electronics that cannot be re-sold to secondary vendors to be repaired and recycled to lower income communities in need, or properly disposed. And those stinky old shoes you’re about to throw away? Goodwill takes those, too! They’re made into the soft bedding under playground equipment. Have you heard of Freecycle? Yankton has a group. Freecycling is when a person passes on, for free, an unwanted item to another person who needs that item. You can join the group at www.freecycle.org. It’s a fantastic way to give things you don’t need and get things you do need while keeping useable items from straining our landfills. If you have any questions about any of these programs, wish to volunteer for a clean-up, or to support us with a membership/donation (we are a 501 (c)(3) receiving no operational funding from the city, state or federal governments) please contact us at info@keepyanktonbeautiful.org or (605) 8380665; or visit our website at www.keepyanktonbeautiful.org. If we all take care of our little corner of the world, what a powerful impact we make on the world! I’m proud to see Yankton ■ by Julie Perakslis, Director of working so hard at our Keep Yankton Beautiful corner……. with a ady For Spring Be Re ltation! In-Home Consu FREE Shop” “Yankton’s Flower www.piedpiperflowers.com 5.7700 n 05.66 15th & Broadway, Yankto 6