Keep Iowa Beautiful 15th Annual Photo Contest Opens Wednesday, September 4th

Each year, Keep Iowa Beautiful aims to raise awareness of Iowa’s rural and urban beauty with our Annual Photography Contest. The photo contest offers both amateur and experienced photographers an opportunity to tell Iowa’s story from the perspective of Iowans in a fun, engaging way!

Keep Iowa Beautiful encourages anyone interested to submit their work to this photo contest, which includes cash awards totaling over $2,000! Participants can enter photos in as many categories as they like. The six categories are:

• Iowa Landscape: Capture Iowa’s beauty through depictions of Iowa’s landscape, including but not limited to: farm fields, rolling hills, and wooded forests.
• Iowa Water: Feature Iowa’s beautiful water systems with depictions of Iowa rivers, streams, ponds and lakes.
• Iowa Cities: Iowa’s urban centers are hubs of history, culture, and beauty. This category features depictions of Iowa’s cities, street scenes, and urban landmarks.
• Iowans in Action: This category aims to capture the spirit of Iowa through depictions of the people that live, work, and play in Iowa.  All means of action that can be captured: biking, running, fishing, hunting and hiking are but a few. 
• Iowa Wildlife: Iowa is home to a variety of beautiful critters. This category aims to showcase Iowa’s beauty through depictions of Iowa’s wildlife animals: mammals, fish, birds, bugs and more!
• Hometown Pride: 100+ Iowa towns have participated in our “Hometown Pride” program. This category features depictions of Hometown Pride towns and/or photos of activities by Hometown Pride committees. Click here to review the list of Hometown Pride towns to see if your photo qualifies.

To view prior winners, read the contest rules, and submit entries beginning Wednesday, September 4th through Friday, December 13th, click here.

Communities Benefit from

Paint Iowa Beautiful Program

Our Paint Iowa Beautiful program offers grants that supply paint to volunteers and organizations dedicated to enhancing their communities through community improvement projects. Keep Iowa Beautiful believes well-maintained and painted buildings reflect pride in our communities. Take a look at some of the incredible projects that were recently completed:

One-Room Schoolhouse in Dunkerton, Iowa

Dunkerton Historical & Tourism Association recently completed their beautification project in Dunkerton, Iowa! Volunteers repaired and repainted the one-room schoolhouse located next to Dunkerton Public Library. The schoolhouse will allow for hands-on learning and educational opportunities for everyone to experience!

Flux Dance Company's Open Air Theater

Flux Dance Company recently finished painting the outdoor stage canopy, backdrop, and beams for their Open Air Theater in Sioux City, Iowa! Last month, they held their first official event, "United by the Arts," in the newly finished theater!

Church Stand Shelter at Maxwell City Park

Last month, the Maxwell Parks & Open Spaces Board gave the park shelter at Maxwell City Park a fresh coat of paint, enhancing its appearance and making it easier to maintain. With the help of dedicated volunteers from the local 4-H club and churches, the shelter was scraped and painted, transforming the project into a true community effort!

Hometown Pride Communities Complete Community Improvement Projects and Events

Fonda's New Playground Equipment

The Fonda Hometown Pride Committee, with the support of numerous community volunteers, recently installed new playground equipment, landscape timbers, and pea gravel at School Park in Fonda, Iowa. This new playground, designed for children ages 5 to 12, marks the first significant playground upgrade the park has seen in 30 to 40 years!

Delhi's New Pickleball Courts

At the 2024 Delhi Daze event last month, project partners and stakeholders came together to publicly dedicate two newly completed pickleball courts at Silver Lake Park in Delhi, Iowa. In the last week of July, pickleball players offered lessons to people eager to learn how to play. A special thanks to the Delhi Hometown Pride Committee for completing this project!

Luxemburg's Music in the Park

On August 9th, the Keep Luxemburg Beautiful Committee hosted "Music in the Park" at Luxemburg's City Park. The event featured a live performance by the Stef-n-Daniel Band, fun-filled activities for kids, including playground time and kickball, and food trucks offering a delicious assortment of ice cream flavors from Buenie Bottoms and Delaney's Ice Cream.

Click here to learn more about our Hometown Pride program.

Volunteer Spotlight - Stacie Cronkleton

This month, Keep Iowa Beautiful is excited to spotlight another one of our amazing volunteers, Stacie Cronkleton. As a dedicated volunteer with Lost Nation Hometown Pride, Stacie has been instrumental in providing innovative ideas and leadership that have steered the committee towards successful completion of numerous town projects and events!

"Stacie's ideas and leadership have helped guide Lost Nation Hometown Pride to achieve success with many town projects and events. She has been with the organization since its inception seven years ago and has been the glue that holds everything together!” – Francis Boggus, Clinton County Hometown Pride Coach

Social Media Submissions

Keep Iowa Beautiful wants to share your community’s good news!



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!

Tag us on social media or 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!