Jacqui Flaherty-Ricchiuti , CEO and Executive Director of Keep Akron Beautiful was our featured speaker at the Tuesday June 22 Club meeting. Jacqui Flaherty-Ricchiuti was named the Executive Director & CEO of Keep Akron Beautiful (KAB) in December 2014. Keep Akron Beautiful is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve Akron’s quality of life through beautification and responsible environmental management. A city and private sector funded agency, Jacqui is responsible for raising over $800,000 annually to operate the agency by extensive grant writing. Keep America Beautiful, Inc. awarded the agency second place recognition in 2014 for comprehensive program excellence of affiliates serving similar populations and Akron has been a President’s Circle Award annually since 2003.
Beautification is one of KAB three pillars that encompass their mission of improving Akron's quality of life through beautification and responsible environmental management.
One of the ways this is accomplished is through their Adopt a Site program. The Adopt-A-Site program is a long-term volunteer project that helps beautify public lands in Akron. Volunteers commit to prepare, plant, and maintain a flower garden in their approved site for the entire season. KAB assists with the sites to ensure success. There are currently over 60 Adopt-A-Sites throughout Akron.Another way is through their Beautification Watch Awards.A "Thank You" for Taking Pride in Your Property. Beautification Watch Awards are KAB’s way of saying “thank you” to residents and businesses who take pride in keeping their properties clean and beautified. Every July, volunteers drive an assigned route and nominate all of the addresses that they think should win the award, based on assigned criteria.
The third way is through their Flowerscape Program creating Beautiful & Functional Urban Flower Gardens Flowerscapes are beautiful and functional flower bed installations placed throughout the city of Akron. We have 32 urban Flowerscape sites throughout the city that are planned, planted and maintained by our Flowerscape Crew. They focus on creating functional gardens that are not only beautiful to the community, but are also habitat for wildlife. They also try to use many plants that are indigenous species from this bio region.
The Second Pillar of KAB mission is Litter Reduction.
The Litter Collection Program works on Litter & Illegal Dumping Removal Five Days a Week. Keep Akron Beautiful litter and illegal dumping removal is performed Monday through Friday throughout the year by an in-house litter crew who supervises court-ordered community service workers.
In 2019, we removed 204,940 lbs. of litter and illegal dumping!
Clean up Akron Month is their Largest Volunteer Impact of the Year.
Every April, thousands of volunteers from all around the area take the initiative to get involved and help clean up their city.
In 2019, 2,632 volunteers took time to help make Akron a cleaner and healthier place to live for all this April. These volunteers cleaned up a total of 17.84 tons of trash and 53 tires from 108 sites, including 20 schools.
Loan A Receptacle.
Litter & Recycling Receptacles for Public Events ,Keep Akron Beautiful loans out 50-gallon litter and/or recycling receptacles to assist with public litter control at public space events. These 50-gallon wax-coated cardboard trash and recycling containers are borrowed for use at downtown festivals, Lock 3 concerts, city park events, Soap Box Derby, Stan Hywet Hall events, movie night at Glendale Steps, etc. and returned for others to use.
Our receptacles are graciously funded by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
The third pillar is Community Improvement. This is accomplished in a few ways.
Trailer Programs~
Trailers Filled with Supplies for Community Projects
KAB has two trailers that can be used by community members to complete community projects.
The Community Pride Trailer is filled with supplies for any kind of project such as installing a new playground or preparing a community garden for the season. The Litter & Illegal Dump Trailer is filled with supplies for large litter cleanups.
The trailers are free to use and can be rented for three days maximum.
Our trailer program makes a huge difference in our community and has been made possible thanks to generous donors Citizens Bank and Dominion Energy!
Graffiti Wipe Out Services.
KAB Removes Graffiti All Over the City of Akron
Keep Akron Beautiful operates the Graffiti Wipeout System, a graffiti removal service for public property within the City of Akron. KAB removes graffiti on public property. The requests for removal service can be made by calling 3-1-1 or 330-375-2311. Keep Akron Beautiful will also remove graffiti from private property at a cost of $50 (sometimes more for larger jobs). Please call 330-375-2116 for private property graffiti removal.
To learn more, visit KAB FAQ or copy and paste this link into your browser https://www.keepakronbeautiful.org/faq/
Some of you asked about their golf outing that is slated for August 30, 2021. you can register at: https://www.keepakronbeautiful.org/rough-to-green-golf-outing/
Yours in Service -
Katy Miller
Rotary Club of Akron
- Social Chair 2020-2021
- Program Chair 2021-2022
