Photo Credit: Dave Austin, Iowa Landscapes Third Place Winner
April 2022 Newsletter
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Join Keep Iowa Beautiful, cycling enthusiasts, and Friends of RAGBRAI on April 28th to celebrate the legacy of John Karras with stories that honor him & RAGBRAI!
The evening will feature invited Friends of RAGBRAI speakers, including new RAGBRAI Director, Matt Phippen, and an open mic will be available for individuals that want to tell their tales from the trails. This event will also support the Keep Iowa Beautiful Karras Cart program that hooks up Iowa bike clubs with a utility trailer to help them keep Iowa trails and parks free of trash and litter, with free-will donations accepted in support of the program.
The event will be held at the Cedar Rapids RAYGUN store community room on 2nd floor at 1028 3rd St SE, Cedar Rapids. No admission to attend.
All in attendance will receive a card for 15% off a purchase at RAYGUN!
Big Grove Brewery is donating a variety of their fine beers for enjoyment by attendees as well as some swag giveaways.
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Keep Iowa Beautiful Golf Tournament |
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Join us for Keep Iowa Beautiful’s Inaugural Golf Tournament on Tuesday, June 14th at Copper Creek Golf Club, 4825 Copper Creek Dr, in Pleasant Hill, IA! All proceeds will support Keep Iowa Beautiful’s efforts to make Iowa a more beautiful and sustainable place to live and work!
Check-in will begin at 7:30AM, with the shot gun start at 9:00AM. Individuals can register for $75 or teams of four may register for $300. Fees include green fees, cart rental, and lunch.
Can’t attend but still want to show your support? You can sponsor a hole for $100! Learn more and register here.
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Governor Reynolds Signs Keep Iowa Beautiful Month Proclamation |
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On March 31st, Governor Kim Reynolds proclaimed April as Keep Iowa Beautiful month during a signing ceremony at the State Capitol. The proclamation stated, “Iowa’s communities provide the basis for making Iowa a special, unique and beautiful place to live and raise a family,”
“Keep Iowa Beautiful, a state affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, works with government organizations, private companies, communities and volunteer/service groups statewide to conduct litter prevention, recycling, beautification, landscape enhancement, volunteerism programs and projects.”
For over 21 years, Keep Iowa Beautiful continues to build stronger communities with sustainable futures.
During the month of April, you can help organize efforts in your community to enhance the quality of life, improving the economic vitality and cultural climate where you live, work, and raise a family.
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Community Improvement & Clean-up Ideas Brochure |
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Spring is here! As the weather begins to warm up, consider ways you can improve your community. Keep Iowa Beautiful has created a brochure to provide you with ideas to get started. Whether you choose to organize your own clean-up event, work to combat littering in partnership with local public facilities or help your local nursing home or retirement care facility improve their green space, you can make a difference this spring!
The Community Improvement and Clean-up Ideas brochure has 20 unique actions you can take to help everyone around you. There are numerous benefits of clean-up actions, from a renewed sense of community pride, to the attraction of new visitors, to a safer cleaner, community for all to enjoy.
Grab a few friends and get outside today!
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As Governor Kim Reynolds proclaimed April as Keep Iowa Beautiful month at the State Capitol signing ceremony, Governor Reynolds also presented awards to Keep Iowa Beautiful's four annual award recipients.
“The Keep Iowa Beautiful award program is designed to recognize exceptional people and organizations that have gone the extra mile to help build stronger Iowa communities,” said Reo Menning, Chair of the Keep Iowa Beautiful Board of Directors.
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The Keep Iowa Beautiful Corporation Award went to the RAYGUN for partnering with Keep Iowa Beautiful on the Karras Bike Cart trash removal project. Accepting the award is Mike Draper, Founder and Owner of RAYGUN.
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The Keep Iowa Beautiful Organization Award goes to the IOWA BICYCLE COALITION for promoting safe and enjoyable bicycling as an economic benefit and tourism attraction making communities better places to live. Receiving the award from Governor Reynolds is Will Oelshlaeger, Outreach Manager, of the Iowa Bicycle Coalition.
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The Keep Iowa Beautiful Robert D. Ray Award of Excellence to the COMMUNITY OF BELLEVUE for the remarkable partnerships and projects that enhanced the quality of life in the community. Accepting the award is Tom Roth, Council Member; Steve Bradley, State Representative; Tom Meyer, Superintendent of Schools & Hometown Pride Chair; Abbey Skrivseth, City Administrator; Mayor Roger Michels and Governor Kim Reynolds.
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The Keep Iowa Beautiful Donald F. Lamberti Hometown Pride Vision Award goes to PATTI HARDIN-MAYOR OF DELMAR for being an outstanding leader that has inspired many in making Delmar a great community to live in. Accepting the award from Governor Reynolds is (L to R) Mike Richardson, Vice-Chair of Keep Iowa Beautiful Board; Mayor Patti Hardin, Governor Reynolds and Francis Boggus, KIB Hometown Pride Coach.
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During the month of April, help organize efforts in your community to enhance the quality of life that will improve the economic vitality and cultural climate where you live, work and raise a family. |
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Three high school seniors received Keep Iowa Beautiful $1,000 scholarships toward their studies at an Iowa college or university. Governor Kim Reynolds made the presentations recently at the State Capitol.
“Keep Iowa Beautiful scholarships are awarded to graduating high school seniors who have a record of community service,” said Kevin Techau, Keep Iowa Beautiful Executive Director, “and a desire to continue to support and contribute to the enhancement of the place they live.”
SAUMYA BALAJI, Johnston, $1,000 Schnepf Scholarship. Saumya will be studying environmental science at Iowa State University. Scholarship named after Gerry Schnepf, founding KIB Executive Director. His careers spanned 50 years of making Iowa a better place to live, work and raise a family.
MEGAN CLARK, Grand Mound, $1,000 Fultz Scholarship. Megan will attend Iowa State University, studying agriculture communications. Scholarship named after Bill Fultz, founding KIB Board member and artist. He started an advertising agency that became the largest agriculture advertising agency in the world.
EVELYN WERTZBERGER, Dubuque, $1,000 Byers Scholarship. Evelyn will study political science/environmental policy at the University of Iowa. Scholarship named in honor of educator Bob Byers and his dedication to young people and environmental concerns has been a driving force encouraging young people to help improve their communities.
Since the creation of the scholarship program, Keep Iowa Beautiful has awarded $54,000 to 64 students. There were 91 applications for this year's three scholarships.
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Saumya Balaji, Johnston; Megan Clark, Grand Mound; Evelyn Wertzberger, Dubuque and Governor Kim Reynolds. |
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Diamond Vogel and Keep Iowa Beautiful announced the grant awards for the 2022 Paint Iowa Beautiful program. The program provides free paint to a wide variety of public service projects throughout Iowa.
“The partnership with Keep Iowa Beautiful allows Diamond Vogel to assist and work with many local volunteers that help build communities, making Iowa one of the best states in the nation to live,” said Doug Vogel, Vice-President, Marketing, of the Iowa based company.
In the 19-year partnership with Keep Iowa Beautiful, Diamond Vogel has awarded over 12,564 gallons of paint for 1,286 community projects in Iowa.
“The Paint Iowa Beautiful program helps us increase our assistance to neighborhoods and communities in improving the attractiveness and beauty of where we live,” said Kevin Techau, Executive Director of Keep Iowa Beautiful. “These projects definitely improve the beauty of Iowa, its countryside and its communities.”
The full list of Paint Iowa Beautiful grant recipients is available on our website.
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In 2021, Keep Iowa Beautiful volunteers accomplished big goals! People like you all across the state gave 7,200 hours of their time to pick up 5,400 trash bags of litter through 64 pick-up events throughout the year. From the success of Paint Iowa Beautiful to the first rollout of the Karras Carts in honor of John Karras, we can’t wait to see what we accomplish in 2022!
Check out our program highlights, award winners, and more from this past year.
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April is Keep Iowa Beautiful month, and you can help reduce litter in Iowa!
When you see litter happening on Iowa’s roadways, call 1-888-NOLITTR (1-888-665-4887) to report littering from a vehicle.
Please provide as much detail about the incident as possible:
- License plate number
- Time and specific location (street & city)
- What was thrown from the vehicle
- A vehicle description (color, make and model)
Reported offenders will receive a warning letter from Keep Iowa Beautiful drawing attention to their offense. This sends the message that people, like you, are watching.
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Social Media Submissions
Keep Iowa Beautiful wants to share your community’s good news!
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Are you proud of a completed project in your town? Do you want to show off a new mural in your downtown? Did you host a fun, exciting event for your community? We want to know about it!
Click on the button below to share short descriptions of events, projects, or news from your town! You can include pictures and captions as well. Keep Iowa Beautiful will share your post on our social media!
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Your Support Matters!
Keep Iowa Beautiful is a non-profit organization and, as such, relies on your support to ensure the success of our environmental education and community outreach programs.
Donations will help KIB's efforts to support our community. Any amount is valued and appreciated.
Donations can be made online or checks can be mailed to our office:
Keep Iowa Beautiful
2910 Westown Pkwy #302,
West Des Moines, IA 50266
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KEEP IOWA BEAUTIFUL
2910 Westown Parkway, Suite 302 | West Des Moines, IA 50266
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