(Mc, Allen Texas) – Keep Texas Beautiful recently announced the U.S. Army Recruiting Center as a winner of the 2017 Keep Texas Beautiful Government Award-Military Category, one of the awards it bestows to honor those who protect the Texas environment and support the organization’s mission to make Texas the cleanest, most beautiful state in the nation. The Government Award-Military Category recognizes outstanding contributions to the Texas environment made by government departments, divisions or agencies.
Each year, Keep Texas Beautiful acknowledges deserving individuals, businesses, community groups, civic organizations, media, government entities and law enforcement officials for their commitment to an array of environmental issues, including litter prevention and community beautification, volunteerism, illegal dumping enforcement and education.
In May 2016, Staff Sargent Rodrigo Rodriguez helped coordinate 32 volunteers from six centers across the Rio Grande U.S. Army Recruiting Company. Together the group helped paint a home for an elderly, low income couple in an effort to help a family in need and make a difference, through a beautification project, in the community. The McAllen Revitalization Project is a collaborative effort between Keep McAllen Beautiful and the Imagine Tomorrow Project – a program that helps address dilapidated structures and offers revitalization assistance to McAllen residents. “It felt really great to see how happy the homeowners were when we got done painting their home”, commented Staff Sargent Rodriguez.
“I would like to congratulate the Rio Grande U.S. Army Recruiting Center for being an example of good citizenship and volunteerism, not only for their service to our community, but to our country,” said City of McAllen Mayor Jim Darling. “This award acknowledges those organizations for whom public service is already a mission statement. This project helped to beautify McAllen and help make two elderly residents very happy.”
Award winners will be recognized at KTB’s 50th Annual Conference, held June 12-14th in San Antonio. A full list of winners and award descriptions, as well as information about the conference can be found at www.ktb.org.
About Keep Texas Beautiful
Keep Texas Beautiful, the statewide grassroots environmental and community improvement organization and affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, educates and engages Texans to take responsibility for improving their community environment. KTB and its more than 390 affiliates work with government, businesses, civic groups, and volunteers to ensure that every Texan has the opportunity to help make Texas the cleanest, most beautiful state in the nation. This year, Keep Texas Beautiful is celebrating its 50th Anniversary as an organization. For more information or to donate, call 1-800- CLEAN-TX. visit www.ktb.org or follow along at #50YearsofKTB.
About Keep McAllen Beautiful
Keep McAllen Beautiful implements various events and project throughout the year. Events such as the Arbor Day Celebration, where trees are donated to the public and participants can run a 10k, 5k, ride 25 miles, an educational family fun walk, or plant trees; the Great American Cleanup, an annual litter cleanup where hundreds of volunteers participate to help beautify major thoroughfares, parks and hike&bike trails. Paint McAllen Beautiful, a collaborative project with Imagine Tomorrow. All of the events and projects are administered through the support of the City of McAllen Public Works Department, as well as various other city departments, and area all realized through the help of volunteers.