Dear Friend,

2007 was another great year for Keep Cincinnati Beautiful. In the last 12 months we:

- Posted record-breaking Great American Cleanup numbers: 6,700 volunteers from 88 Tri-State communities collected 650,000 pounds of trash.

- Published a Community Art Booklet

- Partnered with The Cincinnati Park Board to plant 17,000 daffodils

- Gave three Cincinnati Schools an Extreme Makeover planting hundreds of flowers.

-Partnering with Give Back Cincinnati and Hyde Park Painting and Carpentry we transformed a Price Hill Business District by painting five building facades, pressure washing sidewalks and even washing the windows.

- For the seventh year KCB has been named a national award winning affiliate by Keep America Beautiful.

- The City of Cincinnati saw a 3% drop in litter from 2006 and KCB returned $8 for every $1 it received from government funds.

We could not accomplish any of this without the support of the thousands of volunteers, sponsors, and partners that help us bring ideas to fruition. Now, we've rolled out another way to support our programs and projects - become a Friend of Keep Cincinnati Beautiful today!

It has never been easier to donate! Just visit our website and you will be done in no time. Once you have entered your information, you can designate your sponsorship level - simply write it in under "Additional Information". You can also send a check or money order to:

Keep Cincinnati Beautiful
c/o Friends
801 Plum Street, Room 16
Cincinnati, OH 45202

* Remember that all donations are TAX DEDUCTIBLE!

Give the perfect Gift this Christmas: A Donation to Keep Cincinnati Beautiful in someone else's name! We will send that family member, friend or coworker a Christmas Card acknowledging your contribution. Just go to our donation website and fill the "Additional Comments" window with the recipient information.

There is nothing more rewarding than the gift of a safer, cleaner and more beautiful Cincinnati!

Keep Cincinnati Beautiful joined forces with City departments and community members to dramatically improve the quality of life within a pre-determined focus area by strategically deploying resources through the Neighborhood Enhancement Program (NEP).

The program focuses services for a ninety day period in an area that has high crime and blight. This year, the group focused on areas within Price Hill, Avondale, and Northside.

All projects added up to make a big difference within the focus area. For instance in Price Hill there was a 16% drop in blight and a 26% drop in crime. That success has been sustained for the past six months and counting!

Click here to read more about community improvement in our Annual Report.

Our Education Department provides Cincinnati schools with environmental education programs for all school children - from preschool to high school. Classroom programs focus on litter prevention, recycling and community improvement issues, with each program tailored to the grade level.

Procter & Gamble has been our primary sponsor for the past 24 years. In 414 classroom outreach presentations, our staff reached 6,463 students with lessons designed to change attitudes and behaviors about environmental issues.

KCB sponsored free field trips to the landfill and MRF (Materials Recovery Facility) for 447 students and teachers. These field trips dispel myths about recycling, including the myth that recyclables "just get thrown away". Participants are encouraged to be better stewards of their environment.

We recycled plastic bottles with the Aquafina Return the Warmth program. KCB partnered with LEAP UC to collect plastic bottles on the University of Cincinnati campus. For our initiative we were awarded 1,100 fleece jackets made from recycled PET bottles that were distributed in schools!

In addition to litter prevention programs, our Education Department offered five separate Recycling Outreach Programs this year: Paper Recycling, Recycle This!, It Pay$ to Recycle, Close the Loop - Make a Difference, and Unwrapping Packaging. The Paper Recycling program is our most popular. Kids learn all about paper - where it comes from, its future, etc. - and then they operate their very own paper recycling factory and produce recycled paper right there in their classroom!

Click here to read more about Environmental Education in our Annual Report.

Thanks to Fifth Third Bank, a total of eleven grants were given away to communities this year as a part of our mini-grant program! Seven neighborhoods beautified their gateways, and volunteers clocked in over 2,250 hours of labor.

We took our interest in community art to the next level this past year creating a booklet to help communities create art projects of their own. Community Art: A Workbook of Pictures, Projects, Instructions and Resources is a detailed "how-to" manual encompassing a variety of art projects. Click here to download it out!

This program year we planted 17,000 daffodils, 1,250 daylilies, bushes, trees and other perennials along Cincinnati Highways. To date, we have planted over a quarter of a million Daffodils & Daylilies along the highways!

Benken's Florist & Greenhouse donated 5,000 flats of annuals and perennials to Cincinnati communities. This simple but powerful donation gives communities the resources to beautify "Welcome" signs, small parks and flower pots.

Click here to read more about Beautification in our Annual Report.

Thanks to supporters such as The Schott Foundation, for the fifth year in a row the "Don't Trash The 'Nati - Be The Change" multimedia campaign was back on the streets.

A staff of two sets up the hoop in areas where our target demographic, 15-24 year-old-males, naturally gather. We engaged them in games while we promote pride in our community, the 'Nati! It helps to have the most popular urban radio station - WIZF "The Wiz" - with us doing live promos on site! Over 1,500 youth participated in our street hits during the past 12 months.

The "This is Litter Too!" campaign reminds people that cigarette butts are litter, too. Billboards were placed throughout the city advertising our campaign and our staff and interns gave away 400 portable ashtrays in popular gathering spots all over downtown.

Click here to read more about Summer Programs in our Annual Report.

It is estimated that between the Thanksgiving and the New Year holidays, the amount of garbage in the U.S. increases by an extra MILLION TONS PER WEEK.

Over 38,000 miles of ribbon is thrown out each year. Since the Earth's circumference is 25,000 miles, that means that you could tie a bow around the earth with ribbon waste!

In order to help you stay on the "green course" we put together some ideas to help you trim your trash, conserve resources, and save money in the holiday season.

Click here to check our tips and stay on Santa's good list!