Keep Irving Beautiful (KIB) offered a full day of community service on Nov. 10, starting with the annual Unite for Troops Veterans Day event, followed by a park cleanup with volunteers from Calvary Church.

KIB attends Unite for Troops each year, bringing its spinning prize wheel to help educate visitors about the importance of environmental stewardship. Participants received recycled books, courtesy of the Friends of the Irving Public Library. KIB also provided recycling stations throughout the grounds to help make the gathering a “green event.” The organization collected 16 pounds of recyclables—diverting the reusable materials from the landfill. Three student volunteers from North Lake College Service Learning assisted KIB at the event, for a total of 17 hours.

Seven “Loving Our City” group members from Calvary Church offered 14 hours of cleanup service at Hurwitz Park. In July, the church held a community “SERVE” day at the location, painting the park pavilions. Church members were eager to return for the cleanup event.

“The main focus areas for Keep Irving Beautiful are litter abatement, recycling, community beautification and environmental education, and today, we touched on all of those,” said KIB Board Member Chuck Kirk. “Unite for Troops is a great family-friendly, community event that we are always honored to attend. We reached a wide demographic of residents and taught them about environmental topics, as well as increased the awareness about recycling through the green events program. To follow this with a park cleanup really gets back to KIB’s roots of litter abatement and keeping our city clean.”

Keep Irving Beautiful is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating the community about litter abatement, recycling, and beautification to help preserve the health and promote the social and economic prosperity of the city. As an award-winning affiliate of Keep America Beautiful and Keep Texas Beautiful, Keep Irving Beautiful reaches out to all sectors of the community, including government, businesses, churches, as well as cultural, educational, neighborhood and civic organizations. For more information on volunteering with KIB or making an activity a “green event,” visit CityofIrving.org/284/Keep-Irving-Beautiful or call (972) 721-2175.