Austin, TX – Jan. 27, 2009 – Keep Texas Beautiful received the Keep America Beautiful President’s Circle Award at the President’s Circle Award Luncheon, which took place during Keep America Beautiful’s 55th annual National Conference in Washington, D.C.. The President’s Circle Award recognizes exemplary performance made by certified affiliates of the national nonprofit to reduce litter, minimize waste, and beautify and improve their local communities.

In qualifying for a President’s Circle Award, Keep Texas Beautiful has met Keep America Beautiful’s standards of excellence by conducting an annual Litter Index, calculating the affiliate’s cost/benefit ratio, and engaging volunteers to take greater responsibility for their community environment. In addition, award recipients must conduct activities in Keep America Beautiful’s three core focus areas of litter prevention, waste reduction, and beautification/community improvement.

“Keep America Beautiful is committed to making a simple premise work in communities across the nation – engaging individuals to take greater responsibility for improving their community environments,” said Keep America Beautiful President & CEO Matthew McKenna. “One of the national organization’s most effective tools is the work of our grassroots network of affiliate organizations, which has an impact on millions of Americans each year.

“Our affiliates are providing real solutions to problems like litter, graffiti, illegal dumping and other community blights,” added McKenna, in announcing the 2008 award winners. “By enabling people of all ages to participate in community improvement efforts, Keep Texas Beautiful is represented among the best in promoting the values Keep America Beautiful espouses nationally.”

• Litter Index: The Keep America Beautiful Litter Index is a tool used by KAB affiliates to measure litter from year to year, identify “hot spots,” and track their progress in remedying the problem. The tool uses a four-point Likert-type ordinal scale (ranging from 1 – no litter to 4 – extremely littered). The Litter Index can be applied to rural or urban areas of any population size. Each year, affiliates grade their communities during a drive-by examination of the same areas at the same time of the year. This provides an indication of the success of each community’s anti-littering education and other anti-littering programs. Keep Texas Beautiful conducted its Litter Index this past (time of year); [town, city, county) rated a (insert score) on the Litter Index scale.

• Cost/Benefit Analysis: This measurement tool enables Keep America Beautiful affiliates to demonstrate their ability to leverage community resources by determining the dollar value returned to the community for every government dollar invested.