Great American Cleanup

Nearly 1,200 volunteers across Martin County hit the streets to participate in Keep Martin Beautiful’s 2009 Great American Cleanup.  The Great American Cleanup is the nation’s largest annual community improvement program that is coordinated locally by Keep Martin Beautiful. Volunteers spent time in local parks, beaches, and roadways collecting litter and marine debris, planting flowers and trees, and removing exotic vegetation. A total of 11,785 lbs of litter and marine debris was collected throughout the duration of the cleanup.

This year’s theme was Extreme Martin Makeover, because in addition to Keep Martin Beautiful’s typical litter removal efforts, four community revitalization projects were also organized throughout the community.

The non-profit Gertrude Walden Child Care Center, located at 601 SE Lake Street in East Stuart, was in need of repairs and revitalization as a result of its diminishing resources.  However, nearly 100 volunteers worked to repair the leaking roof, apply a fresh coat of paint to the exterior of the building, repair the classroom floors and spruce up the landscaping around the outside of the building.
 
 
 
 


In addition to structural restoration improvements and beautification at the Gertrude Walden Child Care Center, other community projects include exotic vegetation removal, landscaping, and litter removal at the Rio/Jensen Beach Skate Park; landscaping, beautification, and repairs at a historic home in Golden Gate; and mural painting at the Palm City Boys & Girls Clubs.

For the Rio/Jensen Skate Park project, a team of experts from Crossroads Environmental, EarthMark Mitigation Services and Native Lands Management removed invasive exotics, cleared a pathway around the entire park perimeter as requested by local law enforcement and neighborhood watch, and professionally trimmed trees near the front of the park to promote healthy growth. Dumpsters and mulch was provided by Freedom Waste Services.

Many repairs were made to the historic home in Golden Gate by Habitat for Humanity, The Boy Scouts Troop 825, and the Golden Gate Historical Society.

Renowned local mural artist Kelly Arnold led about 90 volunteers in the painting of the mural on an exterior wall of the new Boys & Girls Club of Palm City, located at 1150 SW Martin Downs Boulevard.  Kids and adults alike enjoyed transforming what was once a blank wall into an active Florida lake habitat with landscape designs, as well as paintings of land and water wildlife.

Keep Martin Beautiful’s “Extreme Martin Makeover” was chosen by Keep America Beautiful as a national “Showcase Event” for the 2009 Great American Cleanup.  Jeff Sabin, Government Affairs Manager for Waste Management presented Keep Martin Beautiful with a “Waste Management Community Improvement Award.”

Sponsors of Keep Martin Beautiful’s Extreme Martin Makeover include: Waste Management, Lively Orthodontics, South Florida Water Management District, Wal-Mart, Guy Yudin & Foster, Hooks Construction, Florida Power and Light, Captec Engineering, Rocky's Ace Hardware, The City of Stuart, Ampersand Graphics, The Stuart News, Coast 101.3, the Heylmun, Ranieri and Quaglia families and Martin County Utilities and Solid Waste.

We are also grateful to our community partners: Hooks Construction, Ramey Rug of Stuart, City of Stuart, East Coast Lumber, Glidden Paint, Bob Johnson Painting, Code Red Roofers, Lencon Masonry, Crossroads Environmental, Native Lands Management, Freedom Waste, Waste Management, The Firefly Group, Jimmy Smith Landscaping, Boy Scout Troup #825, Boys & Girls Clubs of Martin County, The Rio Civic Group, Friends of the Historic Golden Gate Community, Habitat Angels Ministries, Habitat for Humanity, Masterpiece Builders, artist Kelly Arnold and Cove Garden.


Symbol of the Great American Cleanup:
Iron Eyes Cody

Iron Eyes Cody is most famous for his "Crying Indian" role in the Keep America Beautiful public service announcement in the early 1970's, an ecology commercial in which he sheds a tear after trash is thrown from a speeding car and lands at his feet.
On his passing in 1999, Iron Eyes Cody was interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California. He is survived by his adopted son, the Native American flautist Robert "Tree" Cody.

“Nearly all my life, it has been my policy to help those less fortunate than themselves. My foremost endeavors have been with the help of the Great Spirit to dignify my people’s image through humility and love of my country. It is my sincerest wish to reach the hearts of the people of the world by my Keep America Beautiful film of ‘The Crying Indian’ so they will be more aware of the dangers of pollution facing the world today. If I have done that, I have done all I need to do!”

Iron Eyes Cody

Reference Source, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crying_Indian

For More information, please call (772) 781-1222,
or
info@keepmartinbeautiful.org

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