Keep Loup Basin Beautiful

Local High School Group Earn Recognition for

 Waste Reduction/Recycling Efforts

Honored at Keep America Beautiful Conference in Washington D.C. in January and at the FBLA Spring Banquet on April 30, 2013, the Ord High School Future Business Leaders of America was awarded the National Distinguished Service plaque in the Youth/School Waste Reduction/Recycling category for their “Recycle the Recycling Trailer” Project.

Previously, the FBLA group had received the 1^st place trophy in the School Recycling category from Keep Nebraska Beautiful (KNB) at their annual conference held June 28, 2012. The group was nominated for these awards by Keep Loup Basin Beautiful.

Lead by sponsor, Jennifer Remmereid, in the fall of 2011 the FBLA partnered with school administrators, the Valley County Community Foundation and Director, and other individuals to obtain a recycle trailer to be located at the High School. The recycling began with the “Go Green” recycling challenge during the October 21, 2011 football game. They continued to promote recycling by participating in Recycle-Bowl and America Recycles Day activities, and by wearing “I Recycle” t-shirts. The FBLA students continues to promote recycling at their school and in the Ord community.

This is a very successful project that has turned into a sustainable program for recycling education for the Ord Public School system. For more information on this project contact Jennifer Remmereid at the Ord High School.

If you would like more information about Keep America Beautiful, Keep Loup Basin Beautiful or the Loup Basin RC&D contact 308-346-3393.

Keep Loup Beautiful has announced that the winner of its 2013 Earth Day “Design your own T-Shirt” Art Contest is Halle Jacobs, a 5^th grade student in Ms. Shafer’s class at North Loup-Scotia Elementary School. Halle’s design depicted children circling the globe engaged in litter pickup and recycling, “United for Earth Day”.

As the winner, her artwork will be printed on T-Shirts for her entire class, teacher, class aids and the principal. The shirts will be presented to the students before school adjourns for the summer by Linda Studnicka, Affiliate Director of Keep Loup Basin Beautiful.  Along with the shirts, the students will receive an Earth Day activity books, and other environmental education materials.

To enter the contest Halle and her classmates signed the following pledge:

“I will do my part to protect planet Earth.  I will make an effort to educate myself and others about recycling and the environment.  I will lend a hand to the environment by reducing, reusing, recycling, buying recycled products, conserving energy and water, and protecting my air and water.  In this way I will be Making Every Day Earth Day.”

This pledge is the basis for all of the programs promoted by Keep Loup Basin Beautiful, sponsored by the Loup Basin RC&D Council and a grant from the Nebraska DEQ.  Call Keep Loup Basin Beautiful at 308.346.3393, stop by the Loup Basin RC&D office located in Burwell Pathway Professional Building or visit our website at www.keeploupbasinbeautiful.org.

Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (NDEQ) has awarded the Loup Basin RC&D Council a grant in the amount of $34,966 to be used for the Keep America Beautiful (KAB) Affiliate, Keep Loup Basin Beautiful.  This organization is a project of the RC&D Council, and serves residents in nine central Nebraska counties.  The DNEQ provides funds annually to Nebraska projects in the categories of public environmental education, cleanups and recycling. Altogether, the NDEQ was able to fund fifty-six applications for 2013.

This grant, awarded in the public education category, will help the Keep Loup Basin Beautiful program fund their education for litter prevention, litter reduction, recycling, and for promotion of other environmental projects this year. The grant requires a match provided by volunteer labor for projects and cash or in-kind contributions.  If you would like to help Keep Loup Basin Beautiful meet this match, please call 308-346-3393 and ask for Linda. Visit our web site www.keeploupbasinbeautiful.org or e-mail info@keeploupbasinbeautiful for more information. The Loup Basin RC&D office is located at 807 H Street in Burwell.

Keep America Beautiful is the nation’s leading nonprofit that brings people together to build and sustain vibrant communities. For more information on KAB, visit www.kab.org.

Local Keep America Beautiful affiliate, Keep Loup Basin Beautiful, was presented the National Keep America Beautiful (KAB) 2012 Great American Cleanup (GAC) Best Activation Award at the Keep America Beautiful Conference held in Washington, DC on January 29^th.  Accepting the award from the KAB President Matt McKenna was Linda Studnicka, Keep Loup Basin Beautiful Affiliate Director.

Keep Loup Basin Beautiful received this award for their outstanding participation in the KAB GAC project in 2012. There are over 500 KAB affiliates nationwide that participate in the Great American Cleanup each year.  This is a project that encourages volunteer groups of all sizes and ages to improve their community environment by litter cleanups, recycle collections, plantings, garden renewal, fix-up projects, cleaning and painting in public spaces, and environmental education.  The local KAB affiliates help the groups by providing support for the projects with free Glad Trash bags, posters, banners, water for the volunteers, and presentations.

If your group is interesting in finding out how Keep Loup Basin Beautiful can help you with your community project in 2013, visit the office which is located at the Loup Basin RC&D office, 807 H Street, Burwell or call 308-346-3393.  Keep Loup Basin Beautiful is a project of the Loup Basin RC&D, and serves nine counties in central Nebraska.

District 70 Garfield County

The students at District 70 in Garfield County were randomly chosen as the 2012 winners of the Keep Loup Basin Beautiful America Recycles Day contest.  Keep Loup Basin Beautiful presented a short program focused on recycling to the school on November 30, 2012, and gave each of the students a  back pack filled with activity books, pencils, pens, rulers, book marks, car litter bags, and other items from Keep America Beautiful. 

Their teacher, Mrs. Christen, entered the students by having them recite the America Recycles Day pledge to promote more recycling.  America Recycles Day, held each year on November 15, 2012, is focused on recycling events, education and programs throughout the nation.

Keep Loup Basin Beautiful is a project of the Loup Basin RC&D and provides environmental education to schools in nine counties in central Nebraska.  For more information about the program, call 308.346.3393 or e-mail info@keeploupbasinbeautiful.org

l-r:  Cash, Trent, Tristen, Jayna, Braiden, Chloe, and Hannah

• Ø One day to educate and motivate…
• Ø One day to get our neighbors, friends and colleagues excited about what can be accomplished when we all work together…
• Ø One day to make recycling bigger and better 365 days a year!

America Recycles Day, a program of Keep America Beautiful, is the only nationally-recognized day and community-driven national awareness initiative dedicated to promoting and celebrating recycling in the United States. Since its inception in 1997, communities across the country have participated in America Recycles Day on November 15 to promote recycling awareness, commitment and action. Recycling is the easiest thing we can do 365 days a year to save energy, conserve natural resources and create green jobs. Did you know——-

• Ø Recycling is a multi-billion dollar industry that employs millions of Americans and helps advance our clean energy economy.
• Ø Our national recycling rate of 34 percent annually:
• Ø Saves the energy equivalent of nearly 250 million barrels of crude oil or nearly 27 days of all U.S. oil imports.
• Ø Avoids greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to removing more than 35 million cars from the road each year.
• Recycling one aluminum can will power a 46 inch LED TV for 3 hours
• Plastic bags are recyclable, but usually not at the curb. However, many retailers across the country have drop-off collections for plastic bag recycling. Other bags that can be recycled as well are: dry-cleaning bags, bread bags and newspaper bags.
•  A glass container can go from a recycling bin to a store shelf in as few as 30 days.
• Ø YOU CAN Take the “I recycle” pledge and commit to learn about what is recycled in your community and commit to recycle http://americarecyclesday.org/pledge/

KLBB received a grant from UPS to help local area organizations plant “water-wise” landscapes.  The Happy Jack Chalk Mines was chosen to receive some of these funds.

After planning with Betty Carlson,  the project was started. One volunteer for was Bob Thomas who arrived at Happy Jack Chalk Mine at 9am and by 1pm he had planted 23 purchased  drought-resistant perennials, plus four donated mums. He also arranged good sized chalks rock in an attractive pattern. These rocks were hauled out of the Chalk Mine by another volunteer, Sue Stonestreet. The entire area was then mulched by Bob, who donated much of that material.

The results of all this effort has really added to the Chalkmine’s landscaping. This fall and winter Betty Carlson will be making trip to the Chalk Mine to water the new garden. In the spring volunteers and employees of the Chalk Mine will be watering and weeding.

• KLBB attended the Loup City Kid’s Fair on Sept 15.  We set up a booth, talked about recycling and put temporary  tattoos on 104 kids. Approximate 125 adults also attended. Montana Markus was our volunteer for that day.
• During Junk Jaunt 200 pocket ash trays, 150 car butt receptacle and 150 car litter bags were given out to the shoppers.  Danny Studnicka helps man the booth at the Burwell Rodeo Grounds.
• An Environmental Fair was held on Oct. 10.  We talked about the waste stream, played “Ready, Set Sort” relay, and shot bottle rockets made from recycled materials.  Each student got an Olympic type metal. There were 156 students area 4th graders and  40 adults and volunteers that attended.  We gave each student an “I Recycle” pencil and button, and all of the teachers environmental art calendars, car litter bags and other KLBB items. In the evaluations handed back by both students and teachers, our session scored a 4.83 out of a possible high score of 5.00, so the sessions were successful.

Our volunteers were Agnes Cernik, Clayton O’Neel, and Payton Lech for that event.

Keep Nebraska Beautiful (KNB) held their annual awards luncheon in Kearney on June 28.  During that luncheon, KLBB was presented the “Gold Affiliate Recognition”. This is the highest level of achievement for the Nebraska Keep America Beautiful affiliates, and means that all of the criteria for good standing was met or exceeded during the past year. 

This information will be passed on to the national Keep America Beautiful (KAB) organization.  Good standing must be met each year so that KLBB is eligible for KAB grants and free in-kind materials for the Great American Cleanup, America Recycles Day, and other KAB programs.   It will also be an important factor in obtaining State DEQ grants next year.

Pictured is Mike Mostek, Chairman of Keep Nebraska Beautiful Board and KLBB Director, Linda Studnicka

Keep Loup Basin Beautiful (KLBB) is a recipient of the UPS/Keep America Beautiful (KAB)CommunityImprovement Grant.  The UPS Foundation’s overall support of KAB is designed to strengthen resources for KAB’s 1200 member affiliate network that encourages individuals to take greater responsibility for improving their community environments.

This grant will be used in the nine counties in the Loup Basin RC&D area. It will promote the KAB fall “Get Growing” program by education and reimbursement to communities for perennial plantings in public spaces such as schools, churches, community gardens, city owned vacant lots, parks, etc. The target planting time will be September 1, through September 15, with September 8, 2012 designated as “Get Growing” Day.  

Start planning your project now! The perennials chosen by the communities will need to be sustainable, drought resistant plants that grow well in Nebraska’s zones 4 and 5.  Funds may be used for ground preparation, and other planting expenses besides purchase of plants.

A complete grant application packet, with a list of acceptable plants, will be available from Keep Loup Basin Beautiful by calling 308-728-3393 after July 9^th.

^{Click here for more information}

The completed application and will be due back by August 1^st.  The chosen applicants will be allotted a set amount that will be reimbursed back to the group after the plantings are completed and simple report with pictures and a list of in-kind contributions, such as volunteers, is sent back to KLBB.

Keep America Beautiful, Inc., established in 1953, is the nation’s largest volunteer-based community action and education organization. This is the 5^th annual UPS/KAB Community Improvement Grant Program, which is providing more support than ever for community greening, litter prevention and waste reduction initiatives across the country. This year’s total grant awards exceeded $150,000 for 66 projects.   Matthew M. McKenna, president and CEO, Keep America Beautiful is quoted as saying “Keep America Beautiful is privileged to have developed such a strong partnership with The UPS Foundation, because its values are in such close alignment with our own. Our affiliates are truly grateful to the many UPS volunteers who are engaging in our local, grassroots initiatives.” For more information about the programs supported through the UPS/KAB Community Improvement Grants, go to www.kab.org/UPS.

The 25^th annual Dannebrog Grundlovsfest celebration will be held Saturday and Sunday, June 2 and 3^rd.   During the weekend, Dannebrog will hold parades, games and other fun activities.  They will also use this time to take part in the national Keep America Beautiful (KAB) Cigarette Litter Prevention Program through a grant program sponsored by Keep Loup Basin Beautiful.  This grant funded activity will focus on the reduction of cigarette litter in downtown Dannebrog by installing ash receptacles around the downtown area, and by handing our pocket ash trays and car cigarette butt receptacles. The program will include public education messaging that a cigarette butt not properly disposed is litter.  

 Tobacco products, including cigarette butts, are the most-littered item in America, representing nearly 38 percent of all items, according to “Litter in America.”  The research also showed that individuals who would never litter items such as beverage cans or paper packaging may not consider tossing cigarette butts on the ground “littering”.  In 2011, there were 252 KAB grant-supported implementations across the country and the communities reported an average 54 percent reduction in littered butts as a result of implementing the program.  

The Keep Loup Basin Beautiful organization is sponsored by the Loup Basin RC&D. If you are interested in more information about this program, call 308-728-3393 or e-mail info@keeploupbasinbeautiful.org. For a Grundlovsfest schedule contact (308)226-8226 or visit the Dannebrog community web site.

Taylor Ference, a 5^th grade student from Loup City Public Schools. As the winner, her artwork was printed on T-Shirts for her entire class, teacher, and the Principal.  The shirts were presented to the students by Linda Studnicka, Affiliate Director of Keep Loup Basin Beautiful, on May 15^th  

Along with the T-Shirts, the student received Earth Day activity books, water conservation activity book, and a note book with an “I Recycle” pencil. All fifth grade students in the central Nebraska counties covered by the Loup Basin RC&D were invited to submit a poster about environmental issues, litter reduction, and Earth Day.  

Picture back row (L-R): Back Row-Principal Tom Hinrichs, Haylee miller, Tucker Quinn, Johnathon Brown, Kaitlyn Skibinski, Bailey Dorsey, Teach Connie Newtson,

Middle row- Jakob Landers, Dalton Gregory, Lacey Kruger, Sydney Badura, Winner Taylor Ference, Vivian Hart, Abbie Badura, Katie Jacobs

Front row-Jacob Bonczynski, Blayze Horn, Delanie Mroczek, Rachelle Eggleston, Courtney Goc, Tyla Saner 

To enter the contest Taylor and her classmates signed the following pledge:

            “I will do my part to protect planet Earth.  I will make an effort to educate myself and others about recycling and the environment.  I will lend a hand to the environment by reducing, reusing, recycling, buying recycled products, conserving energy and water, and protecting my air and water.  In this way I will be Making Every Day Earth Day.”

This pledge is the basis for all of the programs promoted by Keep Loup Basin Beautiful, sponsored by the Loup Basin RC&D Council and a grant from the Nebraska DEQ.  Call Keep Loup Basin Beautiful at 308-728-3393, stop by the Loup Basin RC&D office located at the Valley County Ag Complex (fairgrounds)

Are you throwing away your glass jars and containers? 

Even though you cannot leave your glass at your local recycling trailer that goes to Custer County Recycling in Broken Bow, they will take your glass, if it is delivered directly by the consumer to their recycling center.  Clean the glass with water and remove the lids. NO windows glass, mirrors, or light bulbs accepted.

Just save up your glass and drop it off.  Their hours are 8-12 and 1-5, Monday thru Saturday, and they are located just west of Broken Bow at 79849 Hwy. 2.

March 1-May 31, 2012 

Printable – Your Invitation for the Great American Cleanup, March 1- May 31, 2012

          Keep Loup Basin Beautiful is excited to be able to promote the Keep America Beautiful Great American Cleanup (GAC) program for 2012.  Supported by national sponsors, any community, club, school, or group, large or small can receive Glad bags, and other free supplies that will be given away by Keep American Beautiful.  All volunteers will be entered into a drawing on June 4 for prizes.  In the past, winners have won Troy-Bilt string trimmers, mulching machines and leaf blowers.

ANY public environmental project counts, such as beautification, cleanups, pickups, and recycling. Some examples are cleaning or planting in parks and recreation areas, cleaning lakeshores and river banks, recycling collections, picking up litter, any beautification of any public area  such as planting trees and flowers in public planters or gardens, conducting educational programs, litter-free events, city cleanups, group recycling drives or clothing collections, cleaning or painting the interior or exterior of public buildings such as museums, fire stations, churches, courthouses, schools etc., any litter pickup, old car removal, cemetery cleaning, graffiti removal, school area clean up or beautification, or cleaning empty lots.  Plant red and white flowers and let us know so we can enter you for a possible “Go Big Red” award.

We will arrange to meet you for delivery of the bags, banner, posters, and drawing forms to be returned to Keep Loup Basin Beautiful.

The National Sponsors and Partners provide substantial support to the Great American Cleanup program in a variety of ways, from funding to in-kind donations. America’s leading companies and brands support the campaign. The National Sponsors of the 2012 Great American Cleanup to date are:  The Dow Chemical Company; The Glad Products Company; LG Electronics U.S.A., Inc.; Nestlé® Pure Life® Purified Water; PepsiCo’s Pepsi-Cola and Gatorade companies; Solo Cup Company; Troy-Bilt^® Lawn and Garden Equipment; Waste Management, Inc.; and Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. Educational Partners are: Rubber Manufacturers Association and WM Recycle America.