June 2007 E-Newsletter

H. J. Benken's Florist & Greenhouse in Silverton routinely donates plants to local communities via Keep Cincinnati Beautiful - and this June, they donated over 10,000 annuals!

Volunteers from Hartwell to Over-the-Rhine to Bellevue, Kentucky joined us on June 5th to pick up flowers to plant in their community beds.

Benken's Florist & Greenhouse has been a strong supporter of KCB since 2003, when owner Michael Benken joined our board. Since then, he, his wife Kathy, and his entire crew have supported KCB by hosting events such as Just Desserts, collaborating with us to beautify school grounds, and of course, donating flowers to hard-working community groups!

Thanks again for providing our communities with a fresher look!

Click here to learn more about Benken's

The SuperCan program, sponsored by Keep Cincinnati Beautiful and the City of Cincinnati Department of Public Services, allows communities the opportunity to apply for a dumpster for a community cleanup. These special cleanup events are for outdoor community cleanups that take place in public areas. Dumpsters are not provided to accommodate business or individual needs.

All litter, trash, and illegally dumped items should be placed in the SuperCan, except for tires and "White goods," such as refrigerators, washers, dryers and other types of appliances. To dispose of these items, please call the City Customer Service line at 591-6000 to schedule a special pick up. Stack tires alongside the dumpster. All SuperCans are provided on a first come, first serve basis. Two weeks notice is required for booking a SuperCan.

Please click here for a SuperCan application form.

Many children today spend the major portion of their day in child care settings, schools and after school programs. By the time they arrive home in the evenings there is little or no time left for unstructured free play outside.

The sound of children's voices gleefully at play is a rarity in many neighborhoods. The "backyard", as we knew it a generation ago, is becoming a thing of the past.

On June 19th, Keep Cincinnati Beautiful participated in the "Leave NO Child Inside" Fair at Crossroads Community Church. More than 30 organizations were present showcasing ways to reverse this trend.

Well-known author, Richard Louv, presented a lecture based on his book, "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder", and participated in a panel discussion with local experts from outdoor education, safety and health fields.

The evening was an excellent opportunity for KCB to increase awareness of all the educational and volunteer opportunities available to families, schools and organizations.

If you'd like to learn more about Leave NO Child Inside click here.

Keep Cincinnati Beautiful's designer and Board member, Eliza Tassian-Gantt was recognized in the Women & Business publication for her latest accomplishments.

Every month Women & Business features a business or professional woman who is making a strategic difference through volunteer work. They found exactly that in what Tassian has created for KCB. Gantt created an image that she calls "the cornerstone of a family of brands for Keep Cincinnati Beautiful."

"The logo literally and figuratively represents what we're for," Gantt said. "It's going to have longevity because it positions them for what they want to become." In addition to the "Don't Trash the 'Nati" campaign, Keep Cincinnati Beautiful also hosts the Great American Cleanup and the Daffodils and Daylilies program, which has planted more than 500,000 flowers along Cincinnati highways and ramps to reduce litter. By using the new logo in conjunction with all of these programs, participants will know they're part of a Keep Cincinnati Beautiful project.

"We are very pleased with the final result," Josman Rodriguez, KCB Communications Program Manager said. "The response has been nothing but positive."

For 2 weeks in July (9-20), Keep Cincinnati Beautiful is working in partnership with the Children's International Summer Village (CISV) organization, as well as the National Underground Freedom Center, Xavier University and Chatfield College to host the first International People's Project (IPP).

The IPP will bring together over 20 adults and 50 children from 9 nations to work on an artistically oriented research project called Expressions of Freedom... Through the Arts. They will research and create visual displays dealing with the "unfreedoms".

KCB is delighted to be a partner in this exciting event.

Give Back Cincinnati did a fabulous job in the Business District Extreme Clean in Price Hill! Volunteers painted 6 storefronts, pressure washed the sidewalks and washed windows giving Warsaw Avenue a fresh face.

Store owners were thrilled with their new look, and several are planning additional improvements.

Hyde Park Painting and Carpentry donated paint for the effort. Since 1977, Hyde Park Painting and Carpentry is a family run, one-stop construction and painting company. They emphasize preparation work and value. Click here to find out how can they help you out as well!

Did you know that only 2.5 million phones are collected to be recycled or reused, accounting for less than 1 percent of the millions retired or discarded each year? Why not do something good for the environment instead?

With more than 200 million wireless U.S. subscribers today, the need to keep used cell phones out of local landfills is more important than ever. The Wipe Out Wireless Waste campaign enables Keep Cincinnati Beautiful (KCB) to generate proceeds for local community projects.

How it works: It is very easy! Encourage your friends, neighbors, and family to recycle their no-longer-used wireless phones, batteries and accessories. KCB will provide you with pre-paid envelopes that can be mailed in directly. Contact Josman Rodriguez at 513-352-4383 to get your envelopes. You can also set up your own container, collect the wireless phones/accessories and bring them to KCB.

Volunteers from AmeriCorps worked to beautify the business District of East Price Hill.

Coordinated by Keep Cincinnati Beautiful and Price Hill Will, the volunteers weeded and mulched over 50 tree wells lining Warsaw Avenue from Grand Avenue all the way to Glenway, as well as several gateway gardens.

AmeriCorps is a network of local, state, and national service programs that connects more than 70,000 Americans each year in intensive service to meet our country's critical needs in education, public safety, health, and the environment.

To learn more about AmeriCorps click here

As part of Focused City Services volunteers cleaned up an illegal dumpsite in Avondale. Crossroads Church, in partnership with Keep Cincinnati Beautiful and the Avondale Community Council, collected 14 tons (28,000 pounds) of debris and 179 tires from one site!

During this one day event, Crossroads "Go Cincinnati" deployed over 3,000 volunteers across the City to assist communities with 120 improvement projects.

TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER AT NIGHT

You wouldn't leave your television on all day while you are at the office, and yet, across the country, millions of work PC's are left on all night-wasting energy, and costing owners millions in utility costs. Nearly half of all corporate PC's in the US are not regularly switched off at night, costing US businesses $1.72 billion in energy per year and causing emissions of 14.4 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, according to recently released PC Energy Awareness report.

The report combines statistics on energy usage and CO2 emissions, alongside research on behavior in the American workplace, such as whether employees are turning their PC's off at the end of the day.

"Few problems match an impact so large with a solution so simple," said Sumir Karayi, chief executive officer, 1E. "A computer uses energy even when it appears to be idle. Ideally, everyone would shut down their PC's at the end of the working day, but the research released shows that this just doesn't happen," he stated.

According to the report, some people assume their IT departments need their machines to be left on overnight in order to deploy security patches and software updates. Others believe an on-board "sleep" or hibernation mode kicks in -- which isn't usually the case. And, an alarming number of respondents (21%) admitted that they just don't care so never turn their computers off.

Play the Energy Awareness Game

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