Keep Bulloch Beautiful will celebrate the 10th anniversary of hosting The Great American Cleanup later this month starting on the Bulloch County courthouse lawn.
    The Great American Cleanup, which has been a KBB tradition for 10 years, is a community-wide effort to beautify the places in which county residents work, live and play. The event is structured to bring community members together each spring to clean up roadways and neighborhoods, remove litter and debris from rivers and waterways, improve buildings and structures and landscape natural areas.
    KBB Director Jenna Lawson said the chairman of this year's cleanup is First Southern National Bank President and CEO Tommy David.
    “Mr. David is already an outstanding leader in our community and is very enthusiastic about the mission of KBB,” said Lawson.  “The KBB board and I are excited to be working with him on such a momentous occasion for our organization.  We have definitely hit a milestone.”    
    David said he and the KBB board want residents to focus on keeping Bulloch clean throughout the year.
“We don't want this to be a one day only effort.  We hope everyone will buy into the idea that taking necessary steps to prevent litter and focusing on 'Reduce, Reuse and Recycle' should be a part of our daily lives,” said David. “With this as a mindset, we can make and keep Bulloch County beautiful year-round.”
    Over the past nine years, approximately 13,000 KBB and cleanup volunteers have contributed more than 51,000 hours of service to cleaning up an estimated 199,000 pounds of trash and debris from Bulloch County.
    “These numbers are staggering, however they show us an exciting revelation that the amount of trash being picked up year to year is decreasing, giving us comfort that our programs such as the Great American Cleanup are working to educate our residents about the litter problem in Bulloch County,” said Lawson.
    This year's Great American Cleanup is Saturday, April 24 beginning at 9 a.m. in downtown Statesboro on the Bulloch County courthouse lawn.  Teams who register may choose an area of the county in which to clean, or they may be assigned a problem area which needs attention.  In addition to litter cleanup, teams may complete a beautification project that might include planting a tree, weeding a garden, painting a fence, or other needed improvement projects.  
According to Lawson, volunteer teams can pick their own project or KBB can assign them a beautification project.
    Teams of volunteers are encouraged to register for Great American Cleanup events now.  Businesses, churches, clubs, and any other group are encouraged to form a team and join in the cleanup.  Individuals may volunteer as well, or groups of friends may work as a team in support of the event.  For more information and to register your team for the 2010 Great American Cleanup, visit www.keepbullochbeautiful.org or email KBB at kbb@keepbullochbeautiful.org for registration forms.