Keep America Beautiful 2026 Summit

Keep Florida Beautiful and a few Florida affiliates made the trek to New Orleans where Keep America Beautiful hosted the 2026 National Summit. Every year the location changes, giving the affiliates across the United States a chance to visit and see first hand what our neighboring partners are doing while being immersed in the different cultures in their communities. The theme for the summit was Let’s Do Beautiful Things, which perfectly embodies what every affiliate across the United States strives to do everyday. 

Louisiana Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser co-hosted the Summit and greeted attendees taking selfies, and acknowledging the hard work each person did for their area. It’s always inspiring and a great reminder that there are many state leaders who not only support what affiliates do, but show up and put in the work with us, proving how much our missions mean to them. 

Three Florida affiliates took home Innovation Awards: Recognizing affiliates for innovative approaches to building clean and beautiful communities

• Local Partnership (Population 30,001–100,000): Keep Coral Gables Beautiful, Florida 
• Local Program (Population 250,001 and over): Keep Polk County Beautiful, Florida
• Local Partnership (Population 250,001 and over): Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful, Florida

Florida affiliates not only took home awards but presented multiple sessions during the span of the summit:

• Board member and Executive Director Diego J Cancel was a speaker during the KAB Affiliate forum breakout Hard to recycle/Impossible to ignore. 
• KFB Executive Director attended the State Leaders Council
• Board Chair Erin Ballas presented From Community to Capitol: Working with your Legislature- during her session she inspired affiliates to contact their local legislature which resulted in one receiving $10,000!
• Keep Manatee Beautiful Executive Director Jennifer Hoffman was a speaker during the KAB affiliate breakout: Resilience in Action: Strengthening Communities for what’s next.

What else did we do?

Well, when in New Orleans you must have fun right? KFB and affiliates enjoyed the networking socials, grabbing dinner together, walking the streets of New Orleans, taking in the art and music, and of course… found some litter to remove!

All in all we had a blast, learned so much, and are ready to tackle 2026 with fresh ideas and new rush of inspiration. We hope to see you at one of our events!