Each month, hundreds of volunteers roll up their sleeves and get to work to help keep Flower Mound and Lewisville beautiful. Through the state organization Keep Texas Beautiful, local affiliates Keep Flower Mound Beautiful and Keep Lewisville Beautiful work to do just that- beautify the community, while educating residents on how to maintain a clean and attractive environment.
Keeping Flower Mound Beautiful
With a newsletter mailing list of more than 1,000 residents and about 500 consistent volunteers, Keep Flower Mound Beautiful is becoming a force in the community.
“We usually have about 500 volunteers sign up to help at our big events, and our monthly clean-up/beautification events continue to grow,” says KFMB President Marilyn Lawson. “Our town residents are great at volunteering.”
Keep Flower Mound Beautiful offers many volunteer opportunities for the community.
“We always need lots of volunteers at our two big events,” Marilyn says. Each spring and fall KFMB hosts two large cleanup events for the community.
The Trash Off & Spring Festival & Recycling event will be held Saturday, April 4, at Flower Mound High School. The event includes a community cleanup, followed by a free spring festival with interactive environmental education stations, children’s activities and recycling stations.
KFMB holds Monthly Cleanups from 9:30-11:30 a.m. each third Saturday of the month. The monthly cleanups include trash clearing and beautification projects, such as planting, mulching or participating in the Lend A Hand project. The Lend A Hand project provides help to community members in need. Through Lend A Hand, volunteers have done yard work, replaced siding, repaired and replaced fencing, painted and performed minor home repairs.
In addition, KFMB offers its Adopt-A-Spot program for individuals, families, groups, businesses or organizations. The Adopt-A-Spot program encourages residents to agree to keep a designated spot in the community cleared of litter and/or provide beautification.
“We currently have 51 spots in town adopted but have more that are available,” Marilyn says.
KFMB always is looking for volunteers for environmental projects, as well as administrative work, such as board members, grant writers and website and social media helpers. The organization also thrives on the generosity of its sponsors.
“We really need sponsors for our two big events, for our Lend-A-Hand and to be an overall sponsor for all that we do,” Marilyn says.
For those wishing to become a sponsor, adopt a spot or volunteer, visit KFMB.org or send an email to info@kfmb.org.
Keeping Lewisville Beautiful
Keep Lewisville Beautiful’s mission is to “engage the citizens of Lewisville through service and education to enhance their community environment,” says KLB Executive Director Amy Wells. The award-winning affiliate of Keep Texas Beautiful and Keep America Beautiful partners with surrounding communities to provide educational and volunteer opportunities.
“KLB volunteers help remove over 28 tons of trash annually from the Lewisville community and provided more than 11,882 volunteer hours in 2019,” Amy says. “We focus on making our community a greener, cleaner and more beautiful place to live, work and play.”
KLB offers a variety of programs each year, but one of its largest events is the Spring Cleanup, which will be held Saturday, April 25, at Lake Park.
“We are hosting a citywide cleanup of parks, trails, medians and green spaces. In conjunction with the event, we will also host an environmental expo on-site with environmental games and activities, including making seed balls to throw out in our community,” Amy says. KLB’s other large events include Make a Difference Day, typically held in October, and the Trinity Trash Bash in November. “In October, we will focus on beautification efforts and seeding native wildflowers around public spaces, so watch for dates on our online calendar on the KLB website,” she says. The Trinity Trash Bash is a city-wide cleanup of parks, shorelines and waterways around town, Amy says. “Much like the Spring Cleanup, it will also be held at Lake Park and include an environmental expo. We will have an Arbor Day celebration on-site, free volunteer lunch and t-shirts and more.”
In between the large events, Amy says the organization also offers an Adopt-A-Spot program and the Clean Stream Team, where community members have designated areas to keep clean year-round.
“We also host community cleanups with volunteer groups, Yard of the Month, tree plantings, a Cigarette Litter Prevention program and more,” she says. “One of our biggest focuses right now is increasing pollinator habitats around town by planting waystations, seeding wildflowers in fields, making seed balls and more.”
KLB partners with the City of Lewisville, Agrilife Water University and the Denton County Master Gardener Association to offer free monthly Garden Secrets classes at MCL Grand Theater. The free classes are open to all communities and focus on topics including sustainable gardening, native plants and water conservation.
“The community’s response has been very positive to our Garden Secrets Series,” Amy says, adding that last year more than 650 residents attended. “Our classes grew so much last year that we ran out of room and had to find a bigger space to host classes because we were consistently having waitlists with dozens of names on it. We are now partnering with the City to host the classes in the Black Box Theater at the MCL Grand.”
With all of the programs KLB offers, the organization depends heavily upon the generosity of sponsors and volunteers.
“We have a variety of donation programs that individuals, businesses and groups can become sponsors or donors,” she says. “KLB has a membership program that allows for annual support of KLB programs, starting at $50. We also accept general donations for program support.”
To learn more about volunteer or sponsorship opportunities or to RSVP for upcoming Garden Secrets Series classes, visit KeepLewisvilleBeautiful.org.
