Each year, the Governor’s Community Achievement Awards (GCAA) celebrate ten Texas communities for their outstanding efforts to keep their communities beautiful. From the Texas coast to the Panhandle, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has awarded cities with this honor since 1986. Winners are selected for their ability to engage citizens, local businesses, schools, and other organizations in environmental improvement initiatives. Categorized by population, these ten cities share an award of $2 million in landscaping projects. Keep Texas Beautiful (KTB) and TxDOT have worked together to administer the GCAA for more than 30 years.
As we gear up for GCAA 2020, we’ll be featuring all ten of our 2019 GCAA recipients over the next few months on our blog. Stay tuned to learn about our other winning communities!
Established in 1824, Dickinson is a unique and diverse community situated between the fast-paced metropolis of Houston and the laid-back island of Galveston. Dickinson maintains its charm and appeal with beautiful churches, towering pines and meandering bayous. Early settlers to the area were predominantly Italian, African and German, but today Dickinson celebrates a diverse population of 20,217 residents. There is a wealth of compassion and overwhelming pride in this town as demonstrated by citizens during and after Hurricane Harvey.
Keep Dickinson Beautiful (KDB) has played a key role in revitalizing the city by organizing cleanups and beautification events, engaging the community and restoring a sense of hope for citizens. KDB is a city-led organization with only one full-time employee. With the help of countless volunteers energized to rebuild their city, five apartment complexes and hundreds of older homes are being rehabbed, while three new housing developments are underway and five new businesses have opened with more in various stages of planning and development. After winning a grant from Keep America Beautiful’s Community Restoration and Resiliency Fund, they also created a community parklet. Grass, irrigation, plants, trees, lighting and pavers were installed, along with a sign dedicating the parklet to local heroes of Hurricane Harvey.
This past year, Dickinson experienced a large amount of debris and litter that needed to be cleaned up from Hurricane Harvey. Thankfully, citizens stepped up to the plate and helped clean up the city. Two hundred and seventy-five volunteers cleaned up 160,000 pounds of debris and litter during Fall Sweep, the Great American Cleanup and Trash Bash Waterways Cleanup. The Mayor of Dickinson, Julie Masters, says that winning the GCAA “will represent a big ‘thank you’ to all those that have volunteered in numerous cleanups since Hurricane Harvey.”
Learn more about our GCAA winners at ktb.org/GCAA
