Keep New Albany & Union County Beautiful earns Keep America Beautiful President’s Circle Award recognition

Keep America Beautiful^®, the nation’s leading community improvement nonprofit organization, has presented Keep New Albany & Union County Beautiful with its 2020 President’s Circle Award. The President’s Circle Award recognizes exemplary performance by certified affiliates of Keep America Beautiful in creating clean, green, and beautiful communities.

In qualifying for the President’s Circle Award, Keep New Albany & Union County Beautiful has met standards of merit of Keep America Beautiful by conducting an annual Community Appearance Index; calculating the affiliate’s cost/benefit ratio; and administering initiatives to end littering, improve recycling, and beautify New Albany’s community. Keep New Albany & Union County Beautiful is one of nearly 700 community-based affiliates in the Keep America Beautiful network whose programs, initiatives, and efforts, supported by millions of volunteers, help transform public spaces into beautiful places.

“Each year, our dynamic affiliate network carries out our shared mission at the state, county, and municipal levels across the country,” said Keep America Beautiful President and CEO Helen Lowman, PhD. “By engaging volunteers, building partnerships, and executing innovative programming, our affiliates demonstrate purpose and create collective impact through a national movement with local execution built around mutually reinforcing activities.”

“We’re so grateful for the recognition and hope to build even more engagement with our program locally in the coming years,” said Emily Draffen, Assistant Director of Community Development and coordinator of Keep New Albany & Union County Beautiful.

Community Appearance Index-Litter Index: The Keep America Beautiful Community Appearance Index-Litter Index is a tool used by its affiliates to visually assess overall appearance of communities through indicators such as litter, illegal signs, graffiti, abandoned or junk vehicles, and outside storage. A team of community, business and government representatives conduct the visual analysis using a scoring system ranging from 1-4, with “1” rated as “no litter” to “4” being “extremely littered.” Each year, affiliates grade their communities during a drive-by examination of the same areas at the same time of the year. This provides an indication of the success of each community’s anti-littering education and other anti-littering programs.

Cost/Benefit Analysis: This measurement tool enables Keep America Beautiful affiliates to demonstrate their ability to leverage community resources by determining the dollar value returned to the community for every dollar invested by government.

About Keep America Beautiful
Keep America Beautiful, the nation’s leading community improvement nonprofit organization, inspires and educates people to take action every day to improve and beautify their community environment. Established in 1953, Keep America Beautiful strives to End Littering, Improve Recycling, and Beautify America’s Communities. We believe everyone has a right to live in a clean, green and beautiful community, and shares a responsibility to contribute to that vision. The organization is driven by the work and passion of nearly 700 Keep America Beautiful affiliates, millions of volunteers, and the collaborative support of corporate partners, social and civic service organizations, academia, municipalities, elected officials, and individuals. Join us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. Donate and take action at kab.org.

The only other President’s Circle award winners in North Mississippi were Keep Corinth Beautiful, Keep DeSoto County Beautiful, Keep Oxford/Lafayette County Beautiful and Keep Tupelo Beautiful.