The adage, it takes a village, is demonstrated frequently at Keep Austin Beautiful, but no time quite like Clean Sweep. On a Saturday morning each April, thousands of volunteers invest their time to clean and beautify Austin. To assist with this year’s Clean Sweep on Saturday, April 14, dozens of businesses are investing their resources. Like families and neighbors joining one another to build stronger communities, together, our sponsors, partners, volunteers, and staff form the extraordinary village capable of creating such an impactful event. It is the generous support of our sponsors and partners that makes this day possible, showing yet again that an investment in Keep Austin Beautiful is an investment in the Austin community.
Many organizations are compounding their contributions by joining as both sponsors and volunteers. Samsung is not only our presenting sponsor, but over 100 Samsung employees are expected to participate in the cleanup. Other businesses are similarly pulling double duty. Freescale, Republic Services, BMC Software, Brown Distributing, Conley Sports, Lloyd Gosselink Rochelle & Townsend Law Firm, and LifeSize Communications have all provided sponsorships and registered to clean a site!
Helping us spread the word about the event are Yelp Austin, the Austin American-Statesman, and Brown Distributing.
Evidence of the event’s growth can be seen in the expanded number of cleanup sites and the increase in sponsor commitment. Calendar Holdings LLC and LCRA’s Employees’ United Charities have joined as new sponsors, while Austin Flower Company has increased its annual donation, commenting, “You guys have done such a great job. My boys and I spend a lot of time on the Colorado River east of Austin, and since the Adopt-a-Creek program began, we have seen a great reduction in the amount of flotsam on the river!”
On-the-water cleanups are made possible by generous donations of boats and paddleboards from Capital Cruises, Congress Avenue Kayaks, Live Love Paddle, Texas Rowing Center, The Expedition School, The Rowing Dock, and Zilker Boat Rentals. Such charitable donations of watercraft allow volunteers much greater access to Lady Bird Lake, helping to maintain such an invaluable body of water.
With more than 4,000 volunteers working across 130 sites around the city, we expect more than 30 tons of trash to be collected this year. Trash bags for the cleanups are provided by Keep America Beautiful. 1-800-Got-Junk, Republic Services, Waste Management, Austin Resource Recovery, Austin Parks and Recreation Department, and Watershed Protection Department will be hauling it away to make sure it doesn’t return as litter.
Following the impressive cleanup efforts, volunteers are invited to a Volunteer Appreciation Party at Fiesta Gardens to celebrate their hard work and commitment to the community. Green Gorilla Movers will be helping us setup for the festivities where participants will be able to enjoy food donated by H-E-B and rehydrate with beverages from Honest Tea and Coca-Cola. Jim Jim’s Water Ice and Cloud 9 Cotton Candy will be back to fulfill volunteer sweet tooths. Door prizes and unique object prizes have been donated by REI, Wash Day Austin, Chuy’s, Tarka, and Noodles & Co.
What an amazing community of partners. And that doesn’t even include the many civic and community groups who have registered to volunteer. Their collective time is expected to total 8,700 hours! A value of $192,600 worth of service contributed to beautify Austin in just two hours!
Thank you, Austin, for showing what can be accomplished when a community comes together.
