By: Claire Tribble
We have been unbelievably busy this fall. We’ve managed to do a little bit of everything, from picking up litter to planting flowers to decorating. And we still have a full calendar to finish out the year. We have some new projects starting, and we are working to reimagine some of our old projects and programs. And as always, we have plenty of volunteer opportunities available!
We kicked off this fall with the Advanced Ag. Class from Limestone County Career Technical School. They met us downtown to help remove some of the tender summer plants to add pumpkins and mums. We wanted the flowerpots to stand out during the Rooted in Rural Alabama, Mississippi & Tennessee Rural Tourism Conference which Athens was selected to host this year. The students took the plants we removed back to their greenhouse at Tanner High School to propagate and grow for us to reuse next year. Chairman Collin Daly was extremely generous by donating all of the pumpkins, which we donated to a mini farm for livestock when we removed them.
We also held a litter cleanup around downtown in preparation for the Tourism Conference. We were a small, but mighty group, but we removed a lot of trash from the creek by the Farmer’s Market and Athens-Limestone Public Library. Most of our volunteers for this cleanup were from Athens High School’s Eagles United Club. This was our first time working with this group, and they were fantastic! We hope that we can continue to work with them in the future. They pulled a lot of trash from the creek, keeping it from moving any farther!
We also put our decorating talents to use! We decorated the LaunchBox for the Tourism Conference. We reused our Christmas lanterns, foraged beautiful flowers, and Lucas Ferry Flower Farm donated some beautiful dahlias, zinnias, and other blooms for us. Once again, Chairman Daly stepped up and provided us with pumpkins to complete our décor! After our Let There Be Cake fundraiser this summer, we realized our love of decorating store windows — Kathleen’s Corner Salon let us take over their Christmas window. We kept with the Athens-Limestone Chamber of Commerce’s Christmas theme, “Merry Movies & Magic.” Stop by and check it out; we sure had fun decorating!
Keep Athens-Limestone Beautiful was also invited to set up a booth at the T.R.A.I.L. Fall into Philanthropy Fair. T.R.A.I.L, which stands for Together Renewing and Improving Limestone, is a student group funded by the DEKKO Foundation. DEKKO was a plant operated in Ardmore, and since their closure, Limestone County is one of 5 counties nationwide to which they make charitable contributions. These students come together to volunteer with different nonprofit organizations in Limestone County, helping the community and learning the importance of volunteering and giving back. T.R.A.I.L. volunteers with KALB picking up litter at the Farmer’s Market.
We had another workday with the Advanced Ag. class to plant our winter pansies. We had to make rounds to remove the pumpkins and mums and add some soil. Then we made our round of planting the winter pansies and adding fertilizer. Then we made another round to water the plants. It was definitely a productive day, we completed the pots, and we all got our steps in, plus some.
We had one more litter cleanup with the Student Government Association from Athens Renaissance School. We had a small group made up of 7th-12th graders. We chose to work in the field along Golden Eagle Drive. Since it was bush hogged recently, all of the hidden paper, Styrofoam cups, and other trash multiplied. We managed to get the field cleaned up faster that I thought, so we hopped over to the Dollar General parking lot to finish up our one-hour time limit. There seemed to be as much trash there as there was in the field. The kids and their two teachers managed to fill eight bags in ONE HOUR. And that is why we have a full schedule.
By: Claire Tribble – Executive Director,
Keep Athens-Limestone Beautiful
