Keep Iowa Beautiful
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Photo Credit: Trent Hanselmann, Iowa Water Honorable Mention

12th Annual Keep Iowa Beautiful Annual Photographer Contest Submission


May 2022 Newsletter

Plant Iowa Beautiful 

On May 10, Keep Iowa Beautiful and Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, with support from the Alliant Energy Foundation, announced the Plant Iowa Beautiful project to build pollinator habitats in 10 counties across Iowa this year. Locations include Cerro Gordo, Jasper, Jefferson, Keokuk, Lee, Lucas, Marshall, Story, Washington, and Winneshiek counties.


Bees and other pollinators are essential to the sustainability, availability, and diversity of fresh produce and other foods. With escalating threats including pesticides, drought, and habitat destruction causing a decline in pollinator populations, pollinator habitats are increasingly needed. 


“This is an amazing project as it involves multiple partners, both across campus and with 10 county extension and outreach locations. It is truly an example of the land-grant mission in action," said Lynne Campbell, education specialist and principal investigator for the grant. “We are grateful for the opportunity to collaborate with the Alliant Energy Foundation and Keep Iowa Beautiful to plant these habitats across Iowa. Our partnerships across campus will be instrumental in the project as well, with The Green Umbrella student organization and our collaboration with the landscape architecture class as well as Facilities Planning and Management.” 


Alliant Energy’s Foundation is proud to support the work of Keep Iowa Beautiful with an $80,000 Impact Grant. 

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KIB Golf Tournament

 Join Us for the Keep Iowa Beautiful Golf Tournament

Join us for Keep Iowa Beautiful’s Inaugural Golf Tournament on Tuesday, June 14th at Copper Creek Golf Club, 4825 Copper Creek Dr, in Pleasant Hill, IA! All proceeds will support Keep Iowa Beautiful’s efforts to make Iowa a more beautiful and sustainable place to live and work! 

 

Check-in will begin at 7:30AM, with the shotgun start at 9:00AM. Individuals can register for $75 or teams of four may register for $300. Fees include green fees, cart rental, and lunch.  


Can’t attend but still want to show your support? You can sponsor a hole for $100! Learn more and register  here

Register

Thank You for Attending Tales from the Trails

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Thank you to all who attended Tales from the Trails on April 28th! This event supported the Keep Iowa Beautiful Karras Cart program that hooks up Iowa bike clubs with a utility trailer to help them Keep Iowa trails and parks free of trash and litter. A free will offering was made in support of the Karras Cart program. Six Karras carts have now been donated to Iowa cities and Iowa Bike clubs to use in trail clean-ups. 


The program featured remarks by new RAGBRAI Director, Matt Phippen, Andrea Parrot, Leo Landis, Museum Curator at State Historical Museum of Iowa, and Mark Wyatt, Director of the Iowa Bike Coalition. We also had an open mic, and several attendees told their tales from the trails. 


RayGun provided the room, provided 15% off coupons to all attendees, and sold the Keep Iowa Beautiful Karras T-Shirts with a portion of each sale going to Keep Iowa Beautiful for Karras Carts. Big Grove Brewery donated beer and seltzer drinks plus Big Grove logo swag. RAYGUN's John Karras T-Shirts can be purchased here.

 

Want more coverage? Check out this video from KGAN TV Channel 2.

View Video

Pick Up Iowa April Recap

Pick Up Iowa events are in full swing! Check out a couple of highlights from recent Pick-Up Iowa events:

Fruitland

25 volunteers with the City of Fruitland tackled the trash at Drake Park and Tornado Park! Volunteers collected 10 bags of trash in 3 hours. 

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Newton

The City of Newton’s Community Services Department cleaned the city’s parks from April 19 through April 22. Over the course of the week, 27 volunteers collected 21 bags of trash. 

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West Branch

West Branch’s team of the West Branch Lions and West Branch high school students picked up eight miles of roadside ditches on April 27. 57 volunteers helped pick up 15 bags of trash; three of which were just cans and bottles!


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Peosta

Seven members with the Western Dubuque Lions Club organized a pickup event on their adopted highway! The small but mighty team collected 30 bags of trash throughout the event. 


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Build with Bags Awards Announced

New park benches, planters, and picnic tables will help to beautify parks and schools throughout Iowa this spring and summer, courtesy of the Iowa Grocery Industry Association’s Build with Bags program. 


Eight Iowa communities will be receiving grants of up to $2,000 to purchase items made from recycled plastic bags. Items include park benches made by Plastic Recycling of Iowa Falls. One park bench represents approximately 10,600 bags that won’t end up in the landfill. 


Build with Bags is a cooperative effort of the Iowa Grocery Industry Association, Keep Iowa Beautiful, Metro Waste Authority in Des Moines, and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Originally launched in August 2009, the Build with Bags Grant program has awarded $380,991.12 in grants to approximately 250 Iowa communities. 


See the full list of grant recipients here: https://www.iowagrocers.com/2022-grant-winners.html


View Recipients
You Can Stop Litter!
April is Keep Iowa Beautiful month, and you can help reduce litter in Iowa! 
 
When you see litter happening on Iowa’s roadways, call 1-888-NOLITTR (1-888-665-4887) to report littering from a vehicle.  
 
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) 
 
Reported offenders will receive a warning letter from Keep Iowa Beautiful drawing attention to their offense. This sends the message that people, like you, are watching. 

 RAGBRAI is Around the Corner

2022’s RAGBRAI map has been released! This year’s 462-mile ride features several towns in our flagship Hometown Pride community, Pocahontas County! Riders will pass through Fonda on the first day, spending the night in Pocahontas. From there, riders will pass through two more Hometown Pride communities on day 2; Havelock and Rolfe. 


Pocahontas County blends the unique attributes of its communities, families, individuals, and businesses by working cooperatively to create a wholesome, diverse work and social environment. In 2016, the surrounding communities welcomed hundreds of thousands of RAGBRAI riders through its towns, showcasing hometown pride at its finest. We are excited for this RAGBRAI legacy to live on!


Be on the lookout for Karras Carts throughout the week! 

Learn More
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Social Media Submissions
Keep Iowa Beautiful wants to share your community’s good news!
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!
Submit Your Stories
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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