Keep America Beautiul, one of the nation’s largest, volunteer-based non-profit organizations, combines education with hands-on stewardship to make America’s communites cleaner and greener.

They recently kicked off their Great American Cleanup campaign today in California, and it included visits from state officials, community tree planting activities and other environmental initiatves.

Jill Greenwood, our friend from Keep America Beautiful, sent this to me to share:

‘A major news story today will undoubtedly be the Texas Presidential Primary, but the presidential campaign is not the only important campaign this year.

Keep America Beautiful’s annual Great American Cleanup, the nation’s largest community improvement program, is rallying Americans to campaign for a cleaner, greener America.

Unlike the presidential candidates, the organization is making a rather unusual campaign promise ‘ this year, it will ‘fight dirty’ and focus on improving communities nationwide. The national kickoff to the Great American Cleanup campaign will take place, today, March 4.

• The event will take place at the California State Museum with the Sacramento River as a backdrop
• Dignitaries such as Mayor Fargo, Henry Losano, Deputy Assistant to the President and Executive Director of USA Freedom Corp., and other city and state officials will be present.
• There will be a ceremonial tree planting with dignitaries on site immediately following the event (10 a.m.)
• Volunteers will blanket the area and will be conducting cleanup activities in various zones throughout Sacramento

Keep California Beautiful, California State Parks, Caltrans, California Highway Patrol and other state agencies will host the national campaign kickoff and coordinate local and statewide volunteer efforts to fight against dirty streets, waterways and public spaces by removing litter and illegal dump sites, greening up parks and other public spaces, holding recycling drives, painting out graffiti, hosting educational events, and more.

Other cities participating in this statewide event include: Bakersfield, Glendale, Oakland, Riverside, San Diego and San Jose.’

This is a great campaign that will continue through May 31, and I hope that it remains a success.

If you’d like to find out if a cleanup is taking place near you, or if you’d like to organize your own cleanup, you can go to the Keep America Beautiful Volunteer page.