Colesburg Hometown Pride Installs New Welcome Sign

This year, Colesburg's Hometown Pride Committee received a grant from Foundation for the Future of Delaware County with a match from the City and the Masonic Lodge! With this money, the group was able to purchase and install a Welcome to Colesburg sign.

The team was also able to purchase a flag pole, flag, lights, and decorative rock for additional landscaping near the sign. These features will be installed in the spring of 2023.

Thank You For Participating in the 13th Annual Keep Iowa Beautiful Photo Contest

The submission period for photos may have closed, but the contest fun isn't over!

Between January 16-30, 2023, the five first-place winners will be featured on Keep Iowa Beautiful social media for voting and selecting the Public Favorite Photo. Make sure to keep an eye on our Facebook and Twitter!

The winner of the social media contest will receive an additional $100. The Robert D. Ray Best of Show Awards, determined by a distinguished panel, will also be announced at that time. The Robert D. Ray Best of Show award amounts are as follows; 1st place: $500, 2nd place: $250 and 3rd place: $100.

As a reminder, the five 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!

Iowa Cities 1st Place: Sharon Scarff of Wayland

Iowa Wildlife 1st Place: William Beardsley of Estherville

Iowa Water 1st Place: Scott Hoag of De Witt

Pick Up Iowa Year in Review

Thank YOU for making 2022's Pick Up Iowa events a success! Communities in every corner of the state got together to make their towns better places. We are so thankful for everyone who got out, got dirty, and picked up litter!

Stay tuned for details about 2023's Pick Up Iowa announcement! In the meantime, check out 2022's statistics below:

Thirty-six cities from all over Iowa held clean-up events, from Decorah, to Newton, to Sabula, and beyond!

Three thousand and five hundred volunteers donated over 6555 hours of their time to their local pick-up events!

Thanks to all of the volunteers who participated, 2,094 bags of trash were collected. However, several events also picked up a variety of other items, including tires and discarded appliances!

Derelict Building Grant Program Applications Open

The Derelict Building Program is available for Iowa towns of 5,000 or fewer residents’ to address neglected commercial or public structures that have sat vacant for at least 6 months. 

FY23 application deadline is Friday, February 25, 2022 for applicants who are seeking funding assistance with conducting asbestos inspections, asbestos abatement, structural engineering analysis, phase I and phase II site assessments, building deconstruction and building renovation expenses.

 The DNR Derelict Building Grant Program awarded grants to nine small, rural Iowa communities to help deconstruct or renovate abandoned structures, remove asbestos, and limit construction and demolition materials going to the landfill.

The DNR Derelict Building Grant Program was instituted by statute to help rural communities with populations of 5,000 or less remove environmental hazards, improve community appearance and minimize costs by recycling and reusing building materials through deconstruction or renovation of abandoned, derelict buildings.

DBGP funding is awarded annually on a competitive basis with cash matches required. Applications for the next funding round will be due on Feb. 25, 2022.

To learn more and start your community’s application click here.

Important Keep Iowa Beautiful Deadlines

Keep Iowa Beautiful Annual High School Senior Scholarships



Don't forget to let your high schoolers know they can apply for Keep Iowa Beautiful’s scholarship program. Keep Iowa Beautiful will award three $1,000 scholarships to Iowa high school seniors in 2023 who plan to enroll in an Iowa college or university. 

The scholarships are in honor of three pioneers in Keep Iowa Beautiful’s 22-year history:



Bob Byers--Educator. Through Bob’s leadership, KIB’s Litter-Free School Campus program was started in NW Iowa. His dedication to young people and environmental concerns was a driving force encouraging young people to help improve their community. This scholarship supports high school students who plan to enroll and study environmental science, community development, landscape architecture or architecture (historical emphasis) or community planning and sustainability.

William Fultz—Keep Iowa Beautiful Founding Board Member and artist. Bill started an advertising agency that became the largest agricultural advertising agency in the world. This scholarship is awarded to a senior planning on studying communications, public relations and/or marketing.  

Gerald Schnepf—Keep Iowa Beautiful Founding Executive Director. Gerry’s career spanned 50 years of making Iowa a better place to live, work and raise a family. This scholarship will be awarded to a senior who has a record of community service and a desire to continue to support and contribute to the enhancement of the place they live and work.  College programs could include community & regional planning and volunteer management.

Since the founding of the scholarship program, Keep Iowa Beautiful has awarded $54,000 to 64 students. Applications are due February 10, 2023 with notification in March.

Paint Iowa Beautiful Grant

Keep Iowa Beautiful and Diamond Vogel Paint are pleased to announce the 2023 Paint Iowa Beautiful program. The program provides free paint to a wide variety of community projects throughout Iowa. Administered through Keep Iowa Beautiful with the paint provided by the Diamond Vogel Paint Company.

“The partnership with Keep Iowa Beautiful allows Diamond Vogel to assist and work with many local volunteers and organizations that help strengthen communities, making Iowa a great place to live,” said Doug Vogel, Vice President, Marketing, of the Iowa based company. “These projects definitely improve the beauty of Iowa, its country side and our communities.”

“The Paint Iowa Beautiful program supports projects that help build and sustain stronger communities.” Said Reo Menning, Chair of the Keep Iowa Beautiful Board of Directors. “In the 20 year partnership with Keep Iowa Beautiful, Diamond Vogel has awarded over 12,000 gallons of paint for nearly 1,300 community projects in Iowa.”  

The online grant application is now open to Iowans and can be completed and submitted by February 10, 2023.

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!

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!

You Can Stop Litter!

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.