The 2024 Keep Florida Beautiful Annual Conference & Awards Social, hosted in part by Keep Okaloosa Beautiful, took place November 13th-15th in Fort Walton Beach at the Island Resort and brought together local affiliates, board members and community partners from around the state. We had not been together in-person for the annual conference since 2019, so this event was highly anticipated among our Florida network – and thanks to our sponsors (see right) and participants, it was a huge success!
The conference included engaging presentations by FDOT (Dayna Dixon), Terracycle(Eric Ascalon), City of Valparaiso (Nathan Kelley), Director of Public Works for Okaloosa County (Jason Autrey), FDEP (Chris Perry), Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful (Debbie Evenson & Kristina Moreta) Keep Polk County Beautiful (Katie Hayes), Consulting firm AArete (McClain Houston), Choctawhatchee Basin Alliance (Amanda Bailey), and Keep Orlando Beautiful (Reine Thormodson & Madison Szathmary) . In addition, great networking opportunities were engaged in by local affiliates as they shared the knowledge, experiences, challenges and successes that keep their local programs operating.
The Sunset Social was intimate and hosted in a room that overlooked the beautiful Gulf. This year’s awards were created from recycled material by Alabama artist JD Swiger (Swiger Studios) . This made for beautiful and unique upcycled awards that our recipients (see below) were thrilled to receive.
Congratulations 2022 Award Recipients!
Clean Community Award – Keep Coral Gables Beautiful with the City of Coral Gables Downtown Community
A quarterly initiative in partnership with the Coral Gables chamber of commerce that prioritizes the cleanliness of the city center, uniting residents and businesses in their commitment to preserving the downtown area. These cleanups include post-event mixers which are hosted by local restaurants and sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce and Baptist Health South Florida. KCGB also partners with Block by Block, a service that provides hospitality and cleaning support to the downtown district. These events continue to bring the community of Coral Gables together.
Outstanding Project Award – Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful with the Joshua House Transformation
KTBB partnered with Friends of Joshua House to transform the lives of foster children staying at Joshua House, a long term foster care facility in Hillsborough County. The project revitalized the outdoor space with the promotion of sustainability, education, and mental well-being. The project included planting of fruit trees, installation of a new chicken coop, pollinator plants, convertible picnic benches, installation of a shade sail, and general property beautification. This project showcases a lasting project that improves the lives of Hillsborough’s most vulnerable youth.
Outstanding Partnership Award – Keep Polk County Beautiful and Polk County Sheriff’s Office – Environmental Crimes Unit
Polk County Sheriff’s Office’s Environmental Crimes & Marine Unit works closely with KPCB to investigate unlawful dumping, animal cruelty cases, and the patrol and enforcement of boating laws and ordinances. KPCB has been partnering with them for over 20 years to help promote clean communities, roadways, waterways, Florida Litter Laws, natural resource conservation, and illegal dumpsite abatement. KPCB with the help of the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, created a PSA video that went viral on social media about illegal dumping. The Polk County Environmental Crimes & Marine Unit as providing an invaluable service to the residents of Polk County.
Outstanding Youth Champion – Marina Barto with Keep Palm Beach County Beautiful
Marina Barto is the co-founder and president of the student-led nonprofit Surface 71. Surface 71 is committed to eliminating plastics in our environment and educating and empowering young people through community cleanups, creating art sculptures with the plastic waste, installing water stations in local schools and advocating on litter prevention and recycling. She has been organizing cleanups and fundraising for her causes, while also volunteering with the Friends of Palm Beach and Keep Palm Beach County Beautiful for 10 years. Marina has been mentored by and collaborated with so many community leaders and organizations and continues to be a leader in her community. She hopes to attend the United States Naval Academy to study ocean engineering.
Outstanding Education Involvement – Keep Charlotte Beautiful with Environmental Education through S.T.E.M. Lab
This program offers six lessons for grades K-5 covering community, materials recognition, littering, recycling, reduction of waste, reuse, composting, and how a landfill is built. The lessons have hands-on or modeling components, all with a focus on reduction of waste at every level. In the 2023-2024 school year, KCB presented in 90 classrooms to 1,651 elementary students. This program began in 2020.
Outstanding Program Award – Keep Wakulla County Beautiful with Park a Tree
Park a Tree is KWCB’s tree planting initiative focused on increasing the number of trees in county parks. The goal is not just to beautify these green spaces but also to make a meaningful contribution to the environment and the lives of residents. These trees help support the local ecosystem by providing food and habitat for pollinators and fruit for local residents, which provides a fresh source of food for the local community. These trees are sponsored by organizations, businesses, and individual citizens. The cost covers the tree, ongoing care, and maintenance. A QR code is installed near the to share the sponsors personal connection along with information about the tree including uses for the fruit.
Adopt-A-Program – Keep Pinellas Beautiful with Carrie Auerbach
Carrie Auerbach has been KPB’s site captain for their Adopt-a-Shore program for the City of Treasure Island since 2020. She is an exceptional adoption Site Captain. She took on the Cigarette Litter Program by adopting 18 butt receptacles. She helps recruit volunteers for different projects including sea oat plantings, the KPB hole patrols to protect sea turtles, while individually volunteering with the Hospitality Partnership Program and the Dune Savers initiative. Carrie goes above and beyond the litter abatement requirements of an adoptee. Carrie is a respected leader within the environmental protection community to residents and the local government. She is key to KPB’s efforts in creating behavior change and community improvement within the Treasure Island community.
Volunteers of the Year –
a. Elizabeth Joshi with Keep St. John’s County Beautiful : Elizabeth Joshi removes hundreds of pounds of trash from roadways, working daily to beautify her community. She was named an anti-litter ambassador for St. Johns County Solid Waste’s “Get Hooked” anti-litter campaign. She founded the Ponte Vedra Litter Crew, attends commission and neighborhood meetings where she advocates for litter prevention and environmental responsibility. Elizabeth participates in educational events and shows true passion for environmental preservation. She has gone above and beyond as a volunteer, embodying the heart of Keep St. Johns County Beautiful.
b.Roberta DePiero with Keep Key West Beautiful: Roberta DePiero has been a steadfast volunteer with multiple nonprofit organizations across Key West, yet her most profound commitment is to Plogging the Keys. August 2024 marked Roberta’s 4th year as a devoted volunteer with Plogging the Keys and Keep Key West Beautiful. Each week she participates in morning bike rides with other Ploggers, methodically collecting litter and reporting any significant issues directly to the city of Key West. She volunteers at the weekly Friday morning cleanups. She took on the role of Plogging Coordinator over two years ago. She coordinates weekly cleanups which includes meals, snacks, and beverages for the volunteers. All of which is provided by Roberta’s efforts to find sponsors of these events. She was able to increase volunteer numbers from 1,014 in 2022 to 1,783 in 2024. Her contributions have significantly enhanced the effectiveness and reach of Plogging the Keys , leading to a cleaner, more beautiful Key West.
Affiliate of the Year – Clay County
Collaboration as a network and among local affiliates is pivotal to the success of KFB as a state affiliate and we greatly appreciate the time each affiliate takes to be part of and participate in our network. Although this affiliate has been part of the organization for a while, it has changed hands several times over the last couple of years. This past year, KFB recognized their increased involvement and participation within the Keep Florida Beautiful network. They have been eager to join in conversations and share their local efforts including adoption programs, large-scale cleanups and community partnerships – all of which enables us to continue showcasing Florida as one of the most active states in the KAB network.
Congratulations to our 2024 Affiliate of the Year, Keep Clay Beautiful!
KFB – Legislative Champion – Erin Ballas
As many of you know, KFB and the local affiliates benefit from funding provided by the Florida legislature. Following a lapse in this funding after COVID, the KFB staff and Board of Directors worked tirelessly to ensure not only that our funding would return but that it would become recurring in the state budget – meaning we would not have to beg for these funds year after year as we had in the past. KFB successfully regained a spot in the budget for fiscal year 23/24 and then secured those funds as recurring for this current fiscal year. A lot of time and effort went into this project and it would have not come to fruition without our 2024 Legislative Champion and KFB Board Chair, Erin Ballas.
Rock The Gulf Beach Cleanup
On the last day of the conference affiliates banded together to conduct a beach cleanup on Okaloosa Island. We had over 80 affiliates and public volunteers assisting to remove all litter they could find. A team of separate volunteers worked to catalog the litter collected and upload it into the Trash Blitz app which allows us to track the amount of each piece of litter by type, brand, color, etc. This information can be used for research and policy change needs among other things!
HHW Olympics
While conferences are meant to inform participants in various areas while providing networking opportunities, it can be hard to get out of “work mode” and have the more personable conversations that help strengthen a community. For the 2024 conference Keep Okaloosa Beautiful and the Okaloosa County Public Works Department hosted the first ever KFB Household Hazardous Waste Olympics! While not all affiliates deal with HHW, many of our county affiliates do, the HHW Olympics allowed for a fun and engaging time where affiliates could let loose and work together to tackle duties HHW staff deal with on a daily basis. Check out a few pictures below!
