Making Earth pretty

[slideshow_deploy id=’20801′]Earth Day and Chadron’s annual The Big Event came in conjunction this weekend for a service day with twice the purpose.

Keep Chadron Beautiful was one of 50 job sites that participated in the event. KCB is a 1984 affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, a nationwide nonprofit organization focused on improving and beautifying communities. 

Jackie Dailey, who has been working with KCB for two years, said the organization does cleanup projects year-round and goes to schools to teach about recycling and pollution control.

At this year’s Earth Day festival, located on the lawn next to the Dawes County Courthouse, 86 community and The Big Event volunteers helped pick up litter. Some locals had booths set up teaching about community improvement tactics such as composting and craft-making from recyclables.

Sloppy joes were provided to the volunteers, on a freewill-donation basis to raise money for KCB to continue teaching and beautifying the community.

The Big Event volunteers made chalk drawings on the sidewalk to create awareness about storm drain pollution.

Job Corps students had made chicken wire block letters filled with collected trash that spelled out “why” and were placed on the street corner, as part of the Litter Letter Project.

They are the first group in Nebraska to participate in the national project, which originated in Louisiana in 2013. According to the organization’s website, “By displaying these large scale visual messages in public places the hope is to provoke response, thought and action.”