This Thanksgiving week, Keep Texas Beautiful would like to give thanks each day to a different member of our Keep Texas Beautiful family. Check this blog each day in the lead-up to Thanksgiving to learn more about the wonderful people and organizations who create positive change in Texas.

Keep Texas Beautiful would like to give thanks to the individual volunteers who give their time and hard work to our programs and our affiliates’ programs. Without you, Keep Texas Beautiful would not exist.

Last year, 111,399 volunteers donated their sweat to our shared goal of keeping Texas beautiful. Together, these incredible individuals contributed 556,995 hours of work, which was valued at $14,008,424. To us, however, those hours are invaluable because of the inspiring changes they created in their communities. Our volunteers created 294 community gardens, cleaned 104 graffiti sites, and cleared 140 illegal dumping sites. Their dedication to their communities planted 1,084 trees and 11,580 flowers across the state. Our volunteers and their families weren’t afraid of the dirty work either — their efforts removed more than 5 million pounds of trash from communities, highways and everywhere in between.

Our volunteers do everything. From the Fall Sweep, to the Don’t Mess with Texas Trash-Off, to adopting highways with the Adopt-a-Highway program, our volunteers are the lifeblood of our programs. But our volunteers’ dedication isn’t limited to state-wide programs. Together with their local affiliate organizations, our volunteers create and execute their own local programs, which they tailor to their community’s needs. Have an event or program idea? Submit your event here!

Another group of volunteers that donates their time and hard work to our cause is the Keep Texas Beautiful Board of Directors. Our 22-person board’s incredible diligence and enthusiasm is instrumental to making Keep Texas Beautiful and our affiliate network the strong organization it is today.

We at Keep Texas Beautiful are incredibly thankful for the dedication, time, and sweat our volunteers put into their communities this year, and every year. This Thanksgiving, Keep Texas Beautiful is thankful for our volunteers and the perseverance and grit they put into achieving their goals.

Curious about events near you where you can volunteer? Check out our event calendar here.