Help "Make Kilgore Shine" tomorrow

In conjunction with the Great American Cleanup which is sponsored by Keep America Beautiful and takes place across the county March through May, the Kilgore Improvement & Beautification Association has set Saturday, April 12 as the day to "Make Kilgore Shine.

KIBA along with 13 local businesses are sponsoring this citywide cleanup.

Sponsors will provide tee shirts for each volunteer participant to wear during the cleanup. The shirts are "safety green" for high visibility. Keep Texas Beautiful has provided trash bags for the event.

In September 2005 the first citywide cleanup conducted under the Make Kilgore Shine campaign drew approximately 200 participants. The second cleanup in November 2006 included approximately 390 volunteers comprising 57 teams with 34 organizations represented.

KIBA Make Kilgore Shine committee members are Diana Ponder, Wanda Bittick, Jeff Howell, Gene Keenon, Cheryl Halla (KISD), Regina Ford (KC), Peggy Bowne, and Debbie Phillips, committee chairman.

The committee has been preregistering teams in order to organize street assignments and schedule trash bag pickup. However, it is not too late to participate. Simply show up at the City Park between 8 a.m. and noon to check in, get a tee shirt and trash bags, and Adopt- A-Street. Plastic surgical gloves will be available for volunteers who do not bring their own work gloves.

Organizations may send a team leader to check in Saturday morning as long as the leader turns in a list of team members' names.

Litter pickup should be completed by noon in order for KIBA to pick up the filled bags. Bags should be placed at curbside in clear view. Any bags accumulated after noon must be disposed of by the teams.

Many of the organizations participating this year have a large number of members and will be splitting up into smaller teams. Some teams who could not participate on Saturday but wanted to contribute to the effort have already picked up litter on their Adopt-A-Street or have committed to cleaning up their street within several days after the scheduled event.

Kilgore Intermediate School students created posters to encourage litter abatement and promote the Make Kilgore Shine campaign. The posters have been on display in area businesses to encourage participation in the cleanup this Saturday. The Kilgore Police Department will be on patrol Saturday and KIBA cautions drivers to be extremely careful on Saturday since so many volunteers will be out along the roadways.

In case of rain, the Make Kilgore Shine cleanup will be held the following Saturday, April 19.

Corporate sponsors of the 2008 event are Allied Waste, Austin Bank, Brookshire's, Citizens Bank, East Texas Lumber, Energy Fishing & Rental Service, Kilgore National Bank, Kilgore News Herald, Merritt Tool Company, Oil Masters, Skeeter Boats, Wal-Mart and Woolley Fishing Tools.