Volunteers from across the state of Illinois met at the Greater Centralia Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday for the annual Illinois Keep America Beautiful affiliate meeting to discuss plans for keeping their communities clean and beautiful. This is the first statewide meeting in several years, following a period of inactivity after the COVID-19 pandemic. Gabriella Polo, Western Regional Director for Keep America Beautiful, was present at the meeting to share the organization’s goals for the near future.
“One of the things that we are going to be working on over the next two years is our Greatest American Cleanup campaign,” Polo said. “In 2026 this nation will be turning 250 years old, and as a birthday gift to the nation we have launched a two-year movement to get all Americans to unite and clean up their communities and join us as we work towards our goal… to pick up 25 million pieces of litter across the nation, so America can welcome its 250th birthday the most beautiful, cleanest it’s ever been.”
Mike Morris of Keep Centralia Beautiful was happy to bring organizations from across the state together in Centralia for the meeting. He said coordinating at the state and national level would allow the local organizations to help each other overcome challenges.
“We’re looking, from a local sense, at how we can strengthen all those connections statewide and with Keep America Beautiful on grant money to help our operations thrive… when Keep America Beautiful contacted us about hosting everyone, I jumped at the opportunity and said sure, we have the resources here to do that. Bring in whoever we can get together and let’s get this started again.”
More information on Keep America Beautiful can be found at kab.org.
