half million dollars (711,481.92)* of in-kind dollars for community action! That is a total of $793,083.92… Youth Education: We are preparing for another great school year of innovative educational programs and presentations. Last year 1,941 youths attended our educational programs. The “What’s In Your Trash” interactive computer game featuring Percy, the animatronic parrot, a real pirate cannon, props and a pirate presenter will have a rejuvenated program this year. We will continue to offer made to order programming for any grade for all schools in the City and County on only fourteen days notice! Adult Education is not left behind either, with special environmental programs available “in the can” or made to order just like the youths programming. This explains the 986 adults touched by our programming in the same few months. Cigarette Litter Prevention Program has had another great year. In the new Central Ave. area where we gave out over a dozen ash receptacles and 1,000 personal litter tools, helping to produce a reduction in this important new area by 47%! We have been given a national ward for this program! Our Roadside Cigarette Litter Prevention Program was the first in America with a full scientific protocol to evaluate the effectiveness of roadside signage on reducing cigarette litter using a protocol developed jointly by your staff and KAB. This program offered free portable car ash trays, ash receptacles, bumper stickers, and more with a value over $50,000! The result of this innovative program was a startling 87% reduction in cigarette litter in the areas covered by the new signs! E-Waste Recycling The Commission has a free E-Waste recovery program sponsored by Entergy and the City of Hot Springs Sanitation Department. This year we are launching a special post holiday E-Waste pick up at the Garland County Community College on Wednesday, January 28th from 7:00 am to 4:00 pm. A great way to get rid of all those outdated electronics! EARTH DAY was our biggest event ever with well over 1,250 attendees in just one Sunday afternoon! Our Earth Day event was a truly green event utilizing recycled paper bags that were hand decorated by fifth grade students as part of a competition held during our Arbor Day Program. It was also a litter free program generating only 28 pounds of non-recyclable litter! The plans are well underway for an even bigger event next year with more exhibitors, a new green venue, and some big surprises… look for a great e-Day event coming on Sunday, May 17th 2009. Storm Water Task Force has possible violation reports passed to both City and County officials. The program trains volunteers how to spot possible infringements of Storm Water laws and EPA requirements. These volunteers are additional eyes and ears of our hard pressed professionals. Our volunteer program to mark City and County storm drains is under way with over five hundred marked drains to date. The Beauty Spot program provides much needed recognition and encouragement to gardeners in the city and county through this one of kind program. It recognizes gardens and places of natural beauty no matter the size, allowing everyone to be recognized as having a Beauty spot! TRASH BASH 08 is a joint project with many organizations. Last year’s event was a great day out for the family doing good for the environment, despite hurricane Ike, almost 250 people braved the weather to pick up over 9,000 pounds of trash in just a few hours. They then enjoyed a free lunch and admission to Garvan Woodland Gardens and shared in more than $4,000 dollars in prizes and awards! Cash For Trash is an offshoot of our TRASH BASH program, the event was a total success in all ways, not only did we get volunteers out collecting litter at the most effective time (during the last days of the lake drawdown) but we recycled significant funds back into our community for further worthwhile projects and programs. The ultimate win-win situation was achieved for our community thanks to Entergy when nine organizations collected over 4,000 pounds of litter, 40 tires recycled, a truck transmission recycled and more, all from our precious lake waters and shared in the $2,000 of mini grants. This year’s event is scheduled for February 21st. Adopt-a-City Street, Adopt-County-Road, and Adopt-A-Shoreline all help to make our community a better place to live. By supplying free equipment needed including: reachers, gloves, bags, even hand sanitizer the commission makes everything easy. The signage provided by the City and County not only recognizes the volunteerism of those who participate, but they have been proven to reduce further littering. This as a great way to get your company’s name out there at no cost and a huge benefit! Arbor Day was a huge success this spring with over 1,000 students, parents and teachers attending the FREE half day educational event at Entergy Park. Every 5th year student, including home the schooled, are invited to see, touch, and hear this outdoor day of natural information. Benefits include a free forest related workbook for every student and special teacher version with all accreditation codes included. This year’s event is set for May 1st. Pirate Themed Environmental PSAs have become a hallmark of the Commission in the past few years with three national awards winning Public Information Announcements made to date. Recently, the “What’s in Your Lake” PSA is ran all over the state and has been given another prestigious commendation The Green Initiative was special City/County project to evaluate the current level of Environmental action in the community, the future plans and perhaps most importantly where the citizens of our community want the local government to go in the future. This dynamic program obtained just under 1000 surveys from the public. The commission has now produced and released a special report. SHINE AWARD! Hot Springs has been awarded one of the first six SHINE Awards by keep Arkansas Beautiful in fact, Hot Springs scored higher than any other City in Arkansas! This prestigious award shows not only the Commission’s dedication, but the whole City’s commitment to a better environment. Beyond these major programs the Commission is involved in Spring Fling, Hazardous Waste Day (October 2009), Discarde D' Arte (May 9th), and many other environmental projects throughout the community. We also offer free advice, information and evaluation. For more information have a look at the website, or call and talk to your local environmental organization, your Hot Springs/Garland County Beautification Commission! * Official Keep Arkansas Beautiful Figures to the State of Arkansas |
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Some of What WE Did For Our Community and Our Environment in 2008 |