Keep Irving Beautiful Hosts “Don’t Mess with Texas Trash-Off”
(IRVING, TEXAS)—The “Don’t Mess with Texas Trash-Off” is the state’s signature event of the “Great American Cleanup,” taking place in communities all across Texas. Keep Irving Beautiful (KIB) hosted its event on April 1 at Trinity View Park, where volunteers shared a common goal of stopping litter from reaching the nearby Elm Fork of the Trinity River. After signing in, receiving supplies from the Irving Hawks Chapter of the Young Men’s Service League and getting safety instructions, groups of volunteers spread out across the park, along creek beds, tree lines and wooded areas, collecting litter that had been washed into this low-lying area.
A total of 215 volunteers (161 adults and 54 youth) combined for 645 hours of volunteer service and collected 1,200 pounds of trash and 1,120 pounds of recyclables.
Following the cleanup, Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas sponsored the lunch of beef and veggie hot dogs, which also included a variety of chips donated by longtime sponsor Frito-Lay. Members of the Nueva Vida Church cooked and served the lunch. City departments that were instrumental in the success of this event included Parks and Recreation, who reserved the park and provided logistic guidance, Solid Waste Services, who provided roll-off containers and weighed the materials collected, and Communications, who provided a crew to cover the event for Irving Community Television Network (ICTN).
Volunteers from Crisis Ministries of Irving were present to accept canned food donations from those in attendance, collecting a total of 315 pounds for their food pantry in downtown Irving. Those who donated food items received a KIB T-shirt while supplies lasted. KIB has included a canned food drive with their two big community cleanup events for the past nine years.
KIB also offered a virtual “#IrvingTrashOff2023” where volunteers chose their own locations around the city and reported via social media. They were asked to post pictures of their cleanups, and include the number of volunteers, hours and bags of trash recyclables collected along with the hashtag #IrvingTrashOff2023.
KIB Board member and Dallas College – North Lake professor Dr. Roy Vu attended the event, as did many of his students. “The Trash-Off is a great community event that brings people of all ages and walks of life together,” said Vu. “Our volunteers are joined by thousands of others in Texas who are participating in their own local Trash-Offs. This is also part of Keep America Beautiful’s Great American Cleanup program, which will engage millions of volunteers throughout the country from March through May.”
Keep Irving Beautiful is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating our community about litter abatement, recycling, and beautification to help preserve the health and promote the social and economic prosperity of our city. As an award-winning affiliate of Keep America Beautiful and Keep Texas Beautiful, Keep Irving Beautiful reaches out to all sectors of our city including government, business, church, cultural, educational, neighborhood and civic organizations. If you are interested in volunteering with KIB, or making your activity a “green event,” please go to Keep Irving Beautiful, or call (972) 721-2175.