By: Claire Tribble
Keep Athens-Limestone Beautiful has a new fundraiser, and we are beyond excited! We are hosting our first ever Casino Night – “Bet on a Beautiful Limestone” at Irons & Ales on March 15, 2025. Dress up and walk down the red carpet and join us for a fun night playing casino games with “funny money”! We have some great prizes to win that were donated by some of Limestone County’s amazing businesses. We’ll have a little bit of everything from poker and roulette to slot machines and more!
Since we are a nonprofit, we rely on appropriations and donations to operate. All the services that we provide are completely free, and that ain’t cheap! We are proud to offer supplies for cleanups, speakers for programs, and our educational programs. We are in the process of rolling out a new program that will modernize our approach to education, but we’ll talk more about that when the last few pieces are received.
What we do makes a huge difference in the day-to-day lives of all of us; most people just wouldn’t notice until it stopped. In the past five years alone, Keep Athens-Limestone Beautiful is responsible for removing 169,372 pounds of litter from public roadsides and waterways. Some of your county commissioners are removing anywhere from 900-1200 pounds of litter per week. It’s just too much. We believe that education is key to helping change habits, and we hope that we can educate and inspire change.
As you know, we provide an annual, free Household Hazardous Waste Collection for all Limestone County residents. We do receive appropriations for this service, but our costs vary from year to year depending on how much and what chemicals are collected. Since this event is the only way to ethically dispose of most of these chemicals, it is very important to us. With Limestone County’s new and very rapid growth, we are hearing the cries for this service more and more, so we know it’s important to you as well. We are hoping that Casino Night makes a big splash in our HHW fund! Side note — the Limestone County Commission Recycling Program accepts motor oil Monday-Thursday, 7 a.m.-3 p.m. They are located at 1301 North Jefferson Street.
In an attempt to bring something new and different to Athens, we have landed on “Bet on a Beautiful Limestone.” We hope that a chance to dress up and have fun brings everyone out to roll the dice with us! Tickets are $75 each, and they include hors d’oeuvres, one drink, and $100 in funny money. Additional funny money can be purchased to play with as a straight donation to Keep Athens-Limestone Beautiful! Stop by the office at 125 East Street, Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. We accept cash or check.
By: Claire Tribble
Executive Director, Keep Athens-Limestone Beautiful
January 3, 2025
