The Keep Arkansas Beautiful Commission (KAB) invites Arkansans to come together for the Great Arkansas Cleanup, scheduled to run from September 7 to October 31. The Great Arkansas Cleanup is one of two seasonal events promoted by KAB and offers volunteers the opportunity to organize events to beautify their communities.
Once a community signs on to host a Great Arkansas Cleanup, KAB helps organize and publicize the effort and provides volunteers with trash bags, gloves, safety vests and T-shirts while supplies last. Promotional materials such as customizable media releases, banners and volunteer stickers, as well as how-to videos and safety tips, are also available on the website. Community groups and organizers can register their events here.
Arkansans continue their commitment to keeping their communities beautiful, with 7,027 volunteers clocking more than 56,216 hours cleaning up and improving 1,247 public spaces in all 75 counties. The community improvement effort involved 246 events, with volunteers collecting 199 tons of litter from 1,002 miles of roadways, 204 miles of waterways, and 377,692 acres of parks and public areas.
The Great Arkansas Cleanup began in 1969 as the Greers Ferry Lake and Little Red River Cleanup. In 1985, U.S. Sen. Dale Bumpers guided legislation requiring an annual pickup event during the weekend after Labor Day on all federal lands. This law, the Carl Garner Federal Lands Cleanup Act, honors the founder of the event.
