Eighty-nine Blanco volunteers spent several hours of their time working at the KBB Trash-Off and Blanco River Cleanup on Saturday morning to help make and Keep Blanco Beautiful.

Many students from Blanco High School (including the Leo Club, Ag Department, and FCCLA), middle school 6th graders and families, elementary students, Trinity Lutheran Church, parents and leaders, and the Blanco Lions Club worked together to pick up trash from the city easements, parks, creeks, and schools.

Our regular truck and trailer brigade went from house to house, picking up items that our citizens were unable, for various health reasons, to take to the city yard themselves. Some just did not have access to a vehicle or help to take the trash. Al Turner, Teresa Hughes, Danny and Dorothy Ray, Wayne Gosnell, and Martin Saucedo manned this effort. Stacey Armstead and Ronnie Rodriguez, our Blanco City Public Works employees, volunteered to spend their Saturday receiving and organizing the discarded items at the city yard.

Our regular family groups, the Singletons and Morgans, worked together to clean most of the Pittsburg area.  They have never missed any of the 13 years that we have held this event. Joey Garza joined the Lions Club to clean Town Creek and the city parks.  Joey loves to work with KBB in Bindseil Park on beautification and Christmas in Blanco. It was so good to see so many of our regular volunteers and to see and meet so many new people who have moved to Blanco and who are working together to make our town better and cleaner.

The Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts were unable to make the event, but they will hold a clean-up in May and tackle the trash along the river.

The KBB mission statement is to educate and engage citizens of Blanco to take responsibility for improving their home, business, and community environment.  Our annual Trash-Off and River Cleanup is one day for our citizens to join together to fulfill this mission.

There are 364 other days in the year (and 365 this year) that we need to help by not littering, picking up litter when possible, and not collecting junk in our yards or junk cars.

One of our biggest problems is cigarette butt litter.  To smokers, we would ask that you do not discard your cigarette butts on the ground. They do not disintegrate for years, if at all.

Keep America Beautiful and Keep Texas Beautiful provided resources to Keep Blanco Beautiful to hold this and many more events throughout the year.

Our beautification committee needs volunteers. Please call Judy Dorsett at 830-833-5663 to volunteer.

KBB and the City of Blanco have worked to implement the “Adopt a Spot” program. If you or your group would like to “Adopt a Spot,” please call Martha Gosnell at 210-845-5384.