Announcing the 20th Anniversary Keep Iowa Beautiful Photography Contest! |
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Every 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 in a fun, engaging way!
To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of our founding this year, Keep Iowa Beautiful has created an EXPANDED photo contest that includes cash awards totaling over $2,000! We’ve also introduced FIVE new categories to the contest:
- Iowa Landscape
- Iowa Water
- Iowa Cities
- Iowans in Action
- Iowa Wildlife
You don’t want to miss out. The contest begins NOW! Grab your camera, explore the great state of Iowa, and take that winning shot! The contest submission deadline is December 18th, so don’t wait.
We can’t wait to see Iowa’s beauty through your lens!
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When you see litter happening on Iowa’s roadways from a vehicle, Call 1-888-665-4887
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)
Call 1.888.NOLITTR (1-888-665-4887) to report littering from a vehicle.
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Bedford Transforms Old Ambulance Doors |
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When some old ambulance doors were in need of sprucing up, the Bedford Area Chamber of Commerce saw an opportunity to do just that with a vibrant, colorful mural. The Chamber applied for a Paint Iowa Beautiful grant and received 7 gallons of paint to complete the project. A senior at the Bedford Community High School, Natalie Carlson, is the artist and her work joins two other downtown murals in Bedford. Check out Natalie’s work and the product of another successful Paint Iowa Beautiful grantee. The mural is located at 622 Court Ave. in Bedford! |
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Keep Iowa Beautiful is proud to help make the "Mucha Meets Iowa" Mural a reality! This was made possible through the Paint Iowa Beautiful grant, a partnership with Diamond Vogel.
Keep Iowa Beatufiul Executive Director Kevin Techau attended the unveiling event this morning where National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library CEO Cecilia Rokysek explained the traditional customs and significance of the symbols in the mural. Mural artist Ali Hval did beautiful work!
Read more about the mural and the history behind this incredible work of art here.
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Sidney Hometown Pride Gets Some Wheels |
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Sidney Hometown Pride is set to become a bigger presence in Fremont County with their new enclosed trailer!
Sidney Hometown Pride will be using this gorgeous trailer for fundraising events, parades, service projects and any other events or projects that come their way. The inside the trailer that perfectly fits their popcorn & cotton candy machines, tables, parade speakers and many, many other supplies.
It was truly a team effort. Thank you to Fremont County Community Foundation grant for the enclosed trailer, Fremont County Tourism grant for the trailer wrap, Burge Photography for the photos, Plum Creek Customs for the trailer wrap design & application, Jim Holmes & Steve Whitehead for the custom shelving.
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Volunteer Shout Out: Warren County Hometown Pride |
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"I believe any community is only as good as its citizens make it. I love helping to make our community and county be as good as possible. The bonus is working with wonderful people in getting it done!"
Mike has been a star volunteer and the vice chair for Norwalk Hometown Pride ever since it was started in 2018! He was instrumental in creating the Warren County Veterans Memorial, advancing our recent effort to get dog clean-up stations in our parks, and has worked on MANY other projects for our group! Thank you Mike for all you do.
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Beautiful Music, Beautiful Trails |
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As with many organizations, COVID-19 has affected Keep Iowa Beautiful’s ability to coordinate many of our volunteer programs this year. In an effort to maintain the tradition of our programs by enlisting individuals across the state, we got creative. On October 10th, individuals and small groups in Des Moines made an effort to clean up some of their favorite areas in the community. The beautification effort was punctuated with beautiful music in the afternoon. The image below is of the Barn Owls along the Neal Smith Trail in Des Moines sharing music with both walkers and cyclists.
One volunteer offered to recruit other runners to regularly patrol sections of their favorite trails and clean up litter along the walk ways. New volunteers included cross country runners from two separate area schools and a group of home school families!
Fun fact: It was an Iowa setting that inspired Anton Dvorak to compose a symphony for America! Symphony No. 9, subtitled "From the New World," is one of the world's most beloved orchestral works.
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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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