Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful received top honors for Best Statewide Activation of the Great American Cleanup of PA during KAB’s recent 60th anniversary National Conference in Washington, D.C.

Additionally, KPB received a Keep America Beautiful State Affiliate Innovation Award for its innovative Nature Explore Classroom, produced in partnership with The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh.

(Photo: Michelle Dunn (Keep PA Beautiful), Gary Smith (Keep Lancaster County Beautiful), Barbara Baker (Keep Lancaster County Beautiful), Matt McKenna (CEO & President Keep America Beautiful), Shannon Reiter (Keep PA Beautiful), and Ken Anderson (PA Waste Industry Association- Republic Services)

Keep America Beautiful’s annual National Conference brought together KAB affiliate leaders from across the country to share best practices and celebrate the successes of the past year.

The KAB Great American Cleanup Best Statewide Activation Award is judged by KAB affiliate peers for program activities during the previous year. The award salutes the state affiliate that created the most innovative programs and partnerships in the past 12 months to promote participation in the Great American Cleanup throughout their state.

“Keep America Beautiful’s Great American Cleanup Best Statewide Activation Award recognizes the outstanding success of statewide support and involvement for affiliates,” said Matt McKenna, president and CEO of Keep America Beautiful. “It’s my privilege to honor Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful and KPB’s President Shannon Reiter for the achievement of 100 percent county-by-county participation during the 2012 Great American Cleanup.”

Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful’s two-week long Pick It Up PA Day achieved remarkable results. A total of 4,421 events took place with 141,264 volunteers collecting 338,148 bags of trash. Volunteers also cleaned 13,589 miles of roads, railroad tracks, trails, waterways, and shorelines, and 14,046 acres of parks and or wetlands. Additionally, volunteers planted 22,511 trees, bulbs, and plants in an effort to keep Pennsylvania beautiful.

“The Great American Cleanup of Pennsylvania and Pick It Up PA Days are successful because of the broad network of support we receive from our state agency partners, private industry and the grassroots network across the state.” explains Shannon Reiter, President of Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, “We are grateful to share this award with all of our partners that continue to drive the great success of this program!”

Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful also won a national KAB State Innovation Award.

Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful, in partnership with The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh built a certified outdoor Nature Explore Classroom to be maintained by the museum. The Nature Explore Classroom is available to all Museum patrons, as well as early education students in the Head Start program.

The outdoor space includes miniature fruit trees, fruit-producing bushes, vegetables, and herbs that grow in several raised beds. Children can build with wooden blocks, play a giant wooden xylophone, roll down earth mounds, and play in a woven Basket Hut. The Basket Hut is a tepee-like structure built out of Norway maple, an invasive plant found at Frick Park, one of the City of Pittsburgh’s major city parks.

For more information on cleanup, prevention and keep it clean programs to help your community, visit the Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful website.

2/11/2013