Keep America Beautiful and UPS Foundation awarded local Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful affiliates, Keep Blair Beautiful and Keep Northeastern PA Beautiful, each with a $5,000 Community Tree Planting Grant.

Keep Blair Beautiful will partner with the Hollidaysburg Area High School, Blair County Conservation District and the local parks department to distribute trees.

“Our local Keep Blair Beautiful Affiliate is excited to have been awarded a grant from The UPS Foundation and Keep America Beautiful to plant trees throughout our communities,” said Katrina Pope, Keep Blair Beautiful Affiliate Coordinator. “Our goal is to inspire our residents to create clean, green, and beautiful places.  We will be using the grant to plant fruit trees at a local school, restore trees to a wetland and stream border, and place shade trees at a new playground.”  

Keep Northeastern PA Beautiful will partner with The Dupont Lions Club and DuPont Borough in Luzerne County to plant trees in three different locations throughout the Borough.

“KNEPAB is very excited to have received the support and grant funding from the 2016 Keep America Beautiful/UPS Community Tree and Recovery Tree Planting Grants program,” said Janet Sweeney, Director of Keep Northeastern Pennsylvania Beautiful.  “KNEPAB in partnership with UPS employees, the Dupont Lions Club and Dupont Borough will use the grant funding to purchase native trees to plant within the Borough. The tree planting will help to beautify Dupont Borough, educate local community residents, especially youth, provide an opportunity for community service and improve the quality of life for residents.”

“Planting trees provide a host of benefits to the community; they clean the air, prevent soil erosion, reduce runoff and provide food and habitat,” said Shannon Reiter, President of Keep PA Beautiful. “Tree plantings provide an opportunity for the community to engage in an activity that improves the quality of life for everyone. We are grateful for the partnership of Keep America Beautiful and UPS for providing this opportunity to our local Pennsylvania affiliates.”

“Participating Keep America Beautiful affiliates in The UPS Foundation grant program are enriching the lives of people in their communities by stabilizing vacant lots, restoring areas hit by natural disasters, and providing beauty through the simple act of planting trees,” said Jennifer Jehn, Keep America Beautiful’s president and CEO. “Thanks to UPS, this national tree-planting initiative will help make our communities economically stronger, healthier, and more resilient.”

The 2016, KAB/UPS Community Tree & Recovery Tree Planting Program, open exclusively to Keep America Beautiful affiliates, awarded $160,000 in grant funds to community tree planting projects nationwide. 

The grants help reduce levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) and greenhouse gas emissions through strategic plantings; planting fruit trees to produce fruit for local consumption; or post-recovery tree planting projects where communities have lost a significant number of trees as a result of natural disasters. The importance of planting native trees was emphasized.

For more information on programs, initiatives and special events, visit the Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful website.  Click Here to sign up for regular updates from KPB, Like them on Facebook, Follow on Twitter, Discover them on Pinterest and visit their YouTube Channel. 

Also visit the Illegal Dump Free PA website for more ideas on how to clean up communities and keep them clean and KPB’s new Electronics Waste website.

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