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  • Courtesy Photo Keep Athens Beautiful honored Rick Green (center), head of the maintenance department at the Henderson County Courthouse with The Hall of Fame award for their support in the Fall and Christmas decoration of the square. Pictured with him are KAB director Carol Morton and Henderson County Judge David Holstein. Courtesy Photo

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June 21, 2010

KAB honors highlights of 2010

Organization awarded special volunteers at appreciation luncheon

Robby Robertson The Athens Review

ATHENS — Keep Athens Beautiful honored the highlights of 2010, and its special volunteers last week at their annual Awards and Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon.

KAB is celebrating 22 years of being an important part of Athens. The group received the Sustained Excellence Award this year which is awarded to Keep Texas Beautiful affiliates scoring 90 or above for the Governors Community Achievement Award (GCAA).

Organizations such as KAB are only eligible to win every three years.

KAB is also a Gold Star Affiliate through Keep Texas Beautiful. They have also maintained their President’s Circle Award through Keep America Beautiful.

This year, KAB entered the Phi Theta Kappa chapter from TVCC in the Keep Texas Beautiful Youth Awards for their joint projects at cleaning up the Dilsey Creek area.

They were selected as the winners. and will receive their award this week at an awards ceremony.

“We are very proud of the college students,” Carol Morton, KAB director, said. “They worked very hard on that project, and did a great job helping keep Athens clean.”

Morton praised the work of volunteers during the Fall and Spring Cleanups.

“We want to say a big thank you to the city and the community for the success of the cleanups,” she said.

Along with cleaning our streets, several people got together to clean up their neighborhoods, bringing truckloads of junk out to the collection site.”

The Spring Cleanup, which was also done in conjunction with the Don’t Mess With Texas Trash Off, was another year of a traffic jam at the collection site.

Morton said there were lots of volunteers moving vehicles and trailers, all trying to drop off their trash and tree limbs.

“A big thank you goes out to Allied Waste,” Morton said. “They assisted us with the collections and help, making the event such a success.”

This year’s decorations around the square during the holidays was another huge success. Every corner of the courthouse lawn was decorated with fall scenes and Christmas cheer.

“The Light-Up Athens committee worked very hard again this year, replacing the Christmas tree again this year with an 18-foot tree.” she said. “It was quite a production to figure out how to put the tree up. But with the help of Red Hat Rentals and the City Parks department, it all came together.”

The Light-Up Athens Celebration is now into its fifth year. With the Christmas parade, lighting of the tree and Mrs. Claus reading Christmas stories in Ginger’s Park, it is an event sure to be back every year.

Other events throughout the year included a celebration of Arbor Day, with fifth graders participating in the Texas Forestry Service Poster Contest. On April 30, KAB announced the winners, and every child went home with a tree.

The Athens Middle School drama students performed a play about litter for South Athens Elementary School. It included a rap song about litter. There was also a Little Peoples Litter Party at Athens Independent School District Annex.

All the students at each elementary school in Athens received coloring books on water conservation this year. Graffiti Hurts was again taught to all sixth graders in March with a poster contest and celebration at the end of school.

A special thanks went to Phoenix Landscape who maintains their gift to KAB of servicing the Railroad Park.

The Highway 19 Historical Park appears to continue to be a welcome site for visitors to Athens, according to Morton. The Master Gardeners planted over 1,100 daffodils in two of the gardens, adding to the spring beauty of the park.

Athens’ fifth Home and Garden Show was held in February, and had over 1,100 people that attended to see 45 venders situated there.

“I would just like to say a big thank you to all of the great volunteers we have here in Athens,” Morton said. “They are what keeps our city looking great.”

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