Keep America Beautiful receives $1 million from Lowe’s

Keep America Beautiful, based in Stamford, Connecticut, has announced the organization has received a $1 million donation from Lowe’s to support more than 40 local community service projects as well as the nonprofit’s annual Great American Cleanup, the nation’s largest community improvement program.

The 2016 Keep America Beautiful/Lowe’s Community Partners Grant Program engages local volunteers to take action to benefit communities across the country with projects ranging from restoring neighborhood parks and planting community and school gardens, to leading disaster restoration initiatives and large-scale cleanups.

Since 2011, Lowe’s has supported Keep America Beautiful and its network of more than 620 state and community-based affiliates with more than $5.4 million in contributions and the support of Lowe’s Heroes employee volunteers. The partnership between Lowe’s and Keep America Beautiful has:

• engaged millions of community volunteers, aided by more than 1,750 Lowe’s Heroes;
• supported the collection of 99 million pounds of litter and debris for proper disposal;
• planted 3.1 million flowers and bulbs, and nearly 100,000 trees;
• funded the establishment and maintenance of 2,006 community gardens; and
• built and restored 3,049 playgrounds and recreational areas.
  

“Our partnership with Lowe’s is a model for how individuals, businesses, nonprofits and government can work together to create lasting change and cultivate beautiful communities that are environmentally healthy, economically sound and socially connected,” says Jennifer Jehn, president and CEO of Keep America Beautiful. “The support of partners like Lowe’s empowers our network of affiliates to rally more than five million volunteers nationwide each year to help turn public spaces into beautiful places. We look forward to seeing the tangible positive impact that will result from our work together.”

Keep America Beautiful affiliates and partnering organizations have received nearly 350 Lowe’s grants over the past six years. More than 1,750 Lowe’s Heroes have participated in grant-funded projects alongside 46,000 community volunteers, together contributing an estimated 238,000 volunteer hours to improve local communities served by Lowe’s and Keep America Beautiful.

“We are honored to help make the communities where we live and work more vibrant, beautiful places,” says James Frison, Lowe’s director of community relations. “Our partnership with Keep America Beautiful gives us the opportunity to invest in efforts that significantly impact the health of our communities.”

Here are some highlights of more than 40 local projects made possible by Lowe’s 2016 partnership with Keep America Beautiful:

• Keep Lewisville Beautiful – Keep Lewisville Beautiful (KLB) in Lewisville, Texas, is partnering with the Lewisville Independent School District (LISD) to beautify and improve the LISD Outdoor Learning Area by planting native wildflowers and prairie grasses, creating educational and demonstration gardens, and improving the quality of various ecosystems associated with outdoor education. In addition, KLB also is partnering with the city of Lewisville to plant trees, clean waterways and replant a 1.5-acre field of wildflowers that was destroyed by natural disaster flooding.
• Shreveport Green – Shreveport Green’s project will create 15 pollinator beds at 15 Shreveport, Louisiana, schools to accompany existing vegetable gardens as well as create two additional pollinator beds at their urban garden site with five new in-ground beds. The new in-ground beds together with the existing 24 above-ground beds will increase the community’s vegetable supply exponentially.
• Rock Hill Clean & Green – In preparation for the 2017 UCI BMX World Championships in Rock Hill, South Carolina, Rock Hill Clean & Green will oversee projects including tree planting and the creation of a waste reduction mobile hydration station using materials and experts from Lowe’s. The project will benefit thousands of athletes and spectators from more than 40 countries attending the BMX World Championship event.
• Keep Northeastern Pennsylvania Beautiful – The “Parker Street Landing Project” will remove more than 120 cubic yards of urban debris, furniture, old televisions and approximately 1,500 auto and truck tires in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The city-owned flood zone land will be prepared for recreational and cultural uses including a river access site for fishing and paddle sport access, community gardens and pollinator/rain garden installations.
• Keep Champaign Beautiful – The grant will enable Keep Champaign Beautiful in Champaign, Illinois, to provide its local partner, Prosperity Gardens, with the materials necessary for construction of an urban farm site that will include large raised platform beds and high tunnels to extend the growing season.  A wash-in-pack facility constructed from two recycled container boxes will provide work space and equipment storage.
  

Last year, Keep America Beautiful and Lowe’s grants supported service projects in 23 states and the District of Columbia, including the newly built Carousel Park in Kingsport, Tennessee; the Santa Ana River and City Waterways Cleanup to clean waterways in Riverside, California; and the Keep Detroit Beautiful and the Greeley Street Block Club beautification of a highly neglected Detroit neighborhood.

Lowe’s is a national sponsor of the Keep America Beautiful Great American Cleanup, supporting events and initiatives to help reduce waste and improve recycling; renew parks, trails and recreation areas; clean shorelines and waterways; remove litter and debris; combat blight; and plant trees, flowers and community gardens, among more than 40,000 events annually. 

Last year, Keep America Beautiful and its affiliates delivered $236 million in measurable benefits across participating communities.

Keep America Beautiful says it is a leading national nonprofit that inspires and educates people to take action every day to improve and beautify their community environment. Established in 1953, the organization says it provides the expertise, programs and resources to help people end littering in America, increase recycling in America and beautify America’s communities. The nonprofit is driven by the work and passion of more than 600 community-based Keep America Beautiful affiliates, millions of volunteers and the support of corporate partners, municipalities, elected officials and individuals.