Keep Yankton Beautiful 2011/2010 News:
Sacred Heart Middle School students work with Keep Yankton Beautiful
to help educated the community on energy conservation and environmental
initiatives. Contact us to have them speak to your group. They have
developed skits and presentations on solar energy, fuel efficiency and auto
parts recycling, paper recycling, going "green" in your home and office:
benefits to the environment and your wallet, and recycling here in Yankton.
Their presentations are fun and very informative. Click here for an
article on their America Recycles Day presentations at WalMart.
Board Member Lori Ibarolle explains why she is an advocate for
Keep Yankton Beautiful. Click
here to read her story.
National Public Lands Day: September 24th was National
Public Lands Day. Keep Yankton Beautiful, the National Park Service and
Missouri River Futures supported the Yankton Area Chamber of Commerece in a
river sandbag cleanup at Riverside Acres. It is crucial to properly
dispose of the deteriorating sandbags so they don't end up in our beautiful
Missouri National Recreational River, a U.S. National Park. In the river,
those sandbags can clog water intakes and boat props, sicken and kill fish &
birds and leave an unsighlty mess in our river. We appreciate the
supporters and volunteers who came to help desperate homeowners with their
sandbags. We also thank Subway, Culligan and Cheers on Broadway who all
provided food and drink for the volunteers.
Rockin' Ribfest Recycle Collection: Yankton Morning
Optimists used KYB's recycling containers to collect aluminum cans during
Rockin' Ribfest and donate them to the Boy Scouts who collect aluminum cans as a
fundraiser. Morning Optimists put their effor, care and concern for the
environment behind a fundraising opportunity for the Boy Scouts and for that, we
thank them!
KYB Liberty Garden Project in honor of 9/11 Victims. Keep
Yankton Beautiful's first project was a liberty garden at 4th & Douglas Streets.
Answering a call by Keep America Beautiful to install liberty gardens to "honor
those that perished and reaffirm prinicples of freedom and liberty on which our
country has been built", Keep Yankton Beautiful dedicated their liberty garden
on September 11, 2002. Read the article on the front page of Yankton's
Daily Press & Dakotan
here.
Riverboat Days Parade Cleanup: We collected 21 bags with
over 180 pounds of trash from the parade route! An impressive number when you
consider it was mostly candy wrappers, styrofoam coffee cups and fast food
containers! Thanks to the community members who helped keep the parade route
neat clean and properly disposed of your trash. A great big thanks to all
of our volunteers and donors for the parade route cleanup and our 10th
Anniversary Birthday Cake float: Brennon Novak & John Wieseler from Sapa
Extrusions, 9 year old Paul & 7 year old Tom Burbach of Crofton, NE, KYB Board
Members, RSVP Volunteer Paul Maynell, Steve Ellis, Yankton Motorsports,
Bomgaars, Conkling, City of Yankton and the SD Dept. of Transportation.
Read the story about our cleanup
here.
Tripp Park is complete! We had our ribbon cutting
ceremony and dedication on Thursday, August 11. Click
here for the news story in the Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan. A huge
thanks to all those who made the Tripp Park Beautification Project possible
including the City of Yankton, the UPS Foundation, and Keep America Beautiful
for their financial contribution; the Yankton County 4H Clovers for their
donation of a tree and their help with so much of the planting; Eric Ambroson
for his computer-rendering of the projected park that helped with the grant
applications and community outreach; Tom Nelson & Stan Hoffart who designed and
implemented the park; the Keep Yankton Beautiful board for their incredible
support, help and commitment; Yankton Nurseries for their in-kind donation,
Scott Luken for his in-kind work on the upcoming bench and local vendors Yankton
Hardscapes, Harley's Curb Appeal Landscaping, Ultimate Edge & Landscaping,
Clark's Rentals, Tri-State Turf & Irrigation and Yankton Nurseries.
Great American Cleanup & Missouri River Cleanup Results: Grand
total = 7.3 tons of trash, material & debris cleaned-up!
Great American Cleanup: On Saturday, April 9th: 116
volunteers gave 406 hours to clean-up 3,870 pounds of trash. During the
week 428 volunteers gave 432 hours of their time to clean-up 3,660 pounds of
trash for a grand total of: 3.765 tons cleaned off our streets!
Click here to read the article on the cleanup that appeared in the Equalizer.
Missouri River Cleanup: On Saturday, May 7th, an estimated 125 volunteers
cleaned-up a total of 3.52 tons of trash and material, including .21 tons of
metal, 1.87 tons of garbage and 1.44 tons of tires!
Tripp Park Beautification Project: Click
here for an article on KYB's beautification project at Tripp Park on
Broadway!
Click
here to see the plans for Tripp Park!
Keep Yankton Beautiful wins Coca-Cola Recycling Bin Grant!
Click
here for news story! We will be receiving 10 recycle bins for easy
transport and use at your facility or event. Use them to collect cans as a
fundraiser and/or to make your event environmentally friendly!! Just
contact us to borrow - the only charge is keeping recyclables out of the
landfill and the environment! Click here
to see the bins.
Great American Cleanup 2011. Read Pam Frick's article on the
cleanup
here.
Keep
Yankton Beautiful (KYB) hosted our annual
Great American Cleanup event this week, culminating in a community
cleanup on Saturday morning. Volunteers met at Memorial Park and headed
out to 12 of the most heavily littered/messy routes/areas in the community.
We collected over 3,800 pounds of trash and debris on Saturday alone!
Despite the drizzly and overcast weather, we had over 115 volunteers turnout—a
95% increase over the previous year, and the largest effort in
KYB history. People across all
ages and spectrums of our community came out to show their stewardship for our
environment and get Yankton clean!
A number of businesses and organizations brought teams including Starbucks, who
also brought coffee and coupons, Walgreens, TruXedo, Peace Presbyterian Church,
United Methodist Church, Mount Marty College, Boys & Girls Club, First National
Service Center, First Dakota National Bank and Avera Sacred Heart Hospital to
name a few. We cleaned Peninah, Ferdig, Alumax & Bill Baggs roads,
sections of 8th, 21st, 25th, and 14th
Streets, Chalkstone Hill and Highway 52 going down to the marina.
Volunteers cleaned the greenspace on Broadway in front of Sacred Heart Cemetery,
greenspace on the corners of 21st & Summit, 21st & West
City Limits, 23rd & Walnut, 4th St. Duck Pond and along
the creek at the Mall. We also had a group taking down all the old ribbons
in the downtown area with the blessing of the National Guard. We’ll have a
follow-up article soon on all of the businesses, organizations and individuals
who couldn’t make Saturday’s cleanup, but organized their own this week and last
week—their cleanups will greatly add to the amount of trash cleared from our
community.
Please remember that most trash gets into the environment when residents do not
properly secure trash left out for city pick-up and when people do not secure
the trash in their vehicles or trucks. Please be conscientious about
ensuring your trash and debris does not get out into our community – especially
after so many people volunteered their time and effort to clean up!!
Please click
here for a list of volunteers and supporters and be sure to thank
them for making Yankton beautiful!
KYB
would like to thank all who made Saturday’s cleanup successful including: Avera
Sacred Heart Hospital, Lewis & Clark Specialty Hospital and MidAmerican Energy
for the gloves, Glad and SD Dept of Transportation for trash bags, Lowes who
funded the bag holders, City of Yankton for the hauler, Nestle for the water,
WalMart for the donuts, Starbucks for the coffee, Knology, Outdoor Channel,
KYNT, KVHT, KCAU, KSFY, Yankton County Observer and Yankton Daily Press &
Dakotan for marketing, media and community outreach, Outdoor Channel and
Troybilt for the raffle items which were won by: Deb Doerr, Sue Freng,
Tara & Grant Gill and Merlye Miller, and most importantly all of the community
members who came out on an overcast and drizzly Saturday morning to take care of
their community! THANK YOU!
CityWide Cleanuppp begins April 9th. Click on
here
for specific details on Citywide Cleanup!
A Successful 2010!! Thanks for a Great Year! In
2010, entirely with the support of our partners, members, sponsors, donors and
volunteers, Keep Yankton Beautiful helped to clear and properly dispose of over
8,000 pounds of litter, debris and household hazardous waste! We also
reached over 1,000 area youth in various education events, camps and
presentations. We logged over 1,500 volunteer hours at a value of over
$15,000 to the community, planted trees, maintained landscaping and installed,
with the help of Ace Hardware, cigarette ash containers in Historic Downtown to
help mitigate the toxic cigarette butt litter! Click
here to read our article in the P&D.
KYB 10 Year Anniversary:
Keep Yankton Beautiful’s 10 year anniversary officially begins in August this year! We have completed some wonderful projects over the last 10 years and had great success with our growing and expanding litter prevention, litter cleanup and litter and recycling awareness events. All thanks to our dedicated members and volunteers! Please watch for our 10 year history retrospective in upcoming editions of the Yankton Press & Dakotan, starting with our July 10 article on the Dakota Spirit Fountain!
Longtime KYB board member and advocate Pam Frick's
article on Marne Creek
International Coastal Cleanup: Over 20 area youth
participated in this cleanup in partnership with the National Park Service, KYB
and the Army Corps. of Engineers. Energetic, dedicated and involved youth
from area schools and the Boys and Girls Club picked-up litter near the Fishing
Wall at Gavin's Point Dam, at Paddlewheel Point and along Marne Creek.
Kids collected a lot of fishing line, cigarette butts (which are the single most
littered item WORLDWIDE, take 99+ years to deteriorate and contain chemicals in
the filter that are dangerous to animals and the ecosystem!), cans, plastic
bottles and glass. A big thanks to the fishermen and women who helped the
kids by picking-up trash around their areas. Remember we get this one
planet, let's all work hard at keeping it nice and clean! The best and
easiest thing we ALL can do to make a positive difference? Ensure our litter and
trash is properly disposed of and RECYCLE!!!! Thanks also to Godfather's
Pizza, Pizza Ranch and Pizza Hut who were kind enough to support these kids and
their efforts by donating pizza to them to eat after their hard work! Great
thing about pizza?! No trash! The pizza is eaten and the box is
recyclable!!
Hazardous Household Waste Collection Yankton was a great
success! We had an almost 30% increase in participation this year.
On October 2nd, volunteers from Keep Yankton Beautiful, employees of Veolia, and
the City of Yankton worked together to collect 4,520 pounds of hazardous waste.
This included over 100 gallons of paint and 53 containers of batteries,
fluorescent bulbs, chemicals, oil, tar and herbicides! Thank you to all
participants who collaborated together in bringing multiple household's
hazardous waste in one car, or who just came with your own--that's 4,520 pounds
of hazardous waste that will not be polluting our environment and endangering
our community! See article on the collection
here!
KYB Supporting the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure helping
guide participants to proper litter disposal containers! We're so happy to
be able to support this great cause while helping educate the public in proper
waste and reycling disposal! Sunday, Sept. 26 9am at the Dakota Dome in
Vermillion!
Cigarette Ash Containers in Historic Downtown Yankton!
Cigarette Litter Prevention Program
has taken off. Ash containers were installed on Saturday by our own Ace Hardware!
Click here to see our flyer for
more information and locations!
Click "article" to see the Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan
article on our installation!
Riverboat Days Parade Cleanup and Litter Free Event:
Keep Yankton Beautiful proudly particpated in Yankton's annual Riverboat Days
Parade again this year. Thanks to support from
Yankton Motorsports, Classic
Carts, Fred Haar
Meridian Bridge Park Project:
Keep Yankton Beautiful is taking on the Meridian Bridge Park Project, which will coincide with our 10th Anniversary and Yankton’s Sesquicentennial! The KYB organization, membership and board are all very excited to be offered this wonderful project opportunity and look forward to moving into the concept and planning stages, expected to begin in late 2010 or early 2011.
Summer Youth Programs:
Summer litter awareness, reduction and recycling programs for Yankton youth have been a great success! We saw a 24% increase in participants of our Trash takes a Hike program through the Summit Activities Center, this summer, and 75 kids participated in the re-use and recycle water bottle awareness program through the Webster Elementary School Lunch Program. Today’s children are aware of the energy-saving benefits of recycling, interested in keeping their environment clean, and very aware of individual power and responsibility to positively impact their world’s future.
Recycle Containers in the Parks:
Craig Sommer, Parks Board Commissioner, is leading a campaign to get recycle containers in our community parks. With the help of a grant from Payless Shoes, he is having 6 recycle containers installed around Memorial Park. The Yankton Area Ice Association and Nick Shade’s Boy Scout Troop will be collecting the recyclable materials to raise money for their groups! Please support these youth organizations and the environment by putting recyclable plastic bottles and cans, and only plastic bottles and cans, in the containers!
Mo. River Cleanup, Missouri River Watershed Festival & Education Event:
On May 8th, more than 100 volunteers cleaned-up over 2.5 tons of litter and debris from the Riverside Boat Dock to Gavin’s Point Dam along the banks and in the waters of the great Missouri River. The cleanup was spearheaded and driven by the Missouri National Recreational River, Missouri River Relief, City of Yankton, Izaak Walton League, Missouri River Futures, Missouri River Institute, Lewis & Clark NRD, Nebraska Games & Park Commission, South Dakota Games, Fish & Parks, US Army Corps. Of Engineers, South Dakota Dept. of Corrections, Coast Guard Auxiliary, South Dakota Geological Survey, US Fish & Wildlife and Keep Yankton Beautiful. The organizers also put together the 2nd annual Watershed Festival and Education Event on May 7th that drew almost 300 7th – 10th grade students from Yankton, Vermillion and Nebraska to learn about various aspects of river ecology from over 15 experts in the field.
Click on
article to read about the cleanup on the Missouri River Relief website and
read our
article in the Yankton P&D.
Great American Cleanup-Yankton:
On April 17th, and during the week before, over 125 community members gave their time, effort and concern to cleaning-up over 2,000 pounds of litter, trash and debris from the streets of Yankton. In additional to the many individuals and families who cared enough about their community to dedicate a sunny Saturday morning to cleaning-it-up, various businesses and civic organizations put together teams of concerned employees. They included Walgreens, First Dakota National Bank, SAPA Extrusions, Home Federal Bank, Mount Marty Men’s Soccer Team, The Boys & Girls Club, Midwest Rider’s Motorcycle Club, Yankton Area Football Association, Dogs R Us Club, Payless Shoes, the Yankton Tobacco Education Coalition, and the Keep Yankton Beautiful Board. While we still have some work to do, Keep Yankton Beautiful is seeing a reduction in the amount of litter needing to be picked-up and that’s a great success! We’ll keep on going with our cleanups and our message until there’s no more litter on the streets to clean!! We want to thank all of our incredible volunteers who make this event both fun and possible! You are taking an active role in improving your community and we commend and thank you for your effort, concern and time!
This year’s cleanup was dedicated to Charlie Battery who returned from a year long deployment to Kuwait the week before the event.
Click here to see news
clips about Yankton's cleanup,
and
here to see the KDLT TV news story.
Avera Kids Health & Safety Fair:
Over 300 4th grade students from all over the area participated in the Health & Safety Fair hosted by Avera Hospital on April 22nd. Keep Yankton Beautiful talked to the kids about how they personally can reduce the amount of litter in our streets, what they can do to help the environment and how to recycle in Yankton.