Volunteers clean community, celebrate Mariposas with Keep Lewisville Beautiful

A total of 376 volunteers showed tremendous community spirit by helping to remove more than 2.5 tons of trash from Lewisville waterways, parks, and public greenspaces. Volunteers contributed 1,585 volunteer hours valued at $47,328 in litter abatement services for the Lewisville community. Volunteer groups helped cleanup 34 locations across town as part of the event, and celebrated Mariposas onsite with an educational expo.

During Mariposas, participants learned more about monarchs, milkweed, and conservation efforts from event partners LLELA, Monarch Watch, Texas Master Naturalist Elm Fork Chapter, Denton County Master Gardeners, City of Lewisville Office of Sustainability, Lewisville Parks and Recreation, KLB and more. Participants celebrated pollinators with hands-on educational activities, butterfly arts and crafts, and planted milkweed at Thrive Nature Park.

The community also helped KLB make wildflower seed balls to increase pollinator habitat, and the Master Naturalists handed out 270 milkweed plants to participants to support the monarch migration this fall. The Lewisville Mayor, TJ Gilmore, also joined volunteers onsite and presented two community proclamations to celebrate the Mayor’s Monarch Pledge, and Arbor Day, which was Friday, April 28. 

Keep Lewisville Beautiful handed out litter abatement awards to groups who collected the most trash in youth and adult categories. Youth Trophy winners included the Harmon National Honor Society who picked up 13 bags of trash along the Old Orchard Greenbelt and iSchool’s National Honor Society and Student Council who cleaned up 16 bags of trash along Corporate and Valley Parkway. For the adult trophy winners, Amazon took home the trophy for cleaning up 20 bags of trash from the canal behind At Home, and EA Engineering, who removed 47 bags of trash from the old Dollar Theater fields along Oakbend Drive. Most unusual trash found went to Amazon, who found an old Blockbuster Membership card from 2001.

“Although it was a little chilly in the morning, we were excited to partner with so many community groups to make a difference Saturday morning,” said Amy Wells, KLB Executive Director. “Volunteers helped clean local parks, streets, and waterways, removing 251 bags of trash plus bulk debris from illegal dump sites. I am grateful for everyone who chose to spend their morning picking up trash with us for this worthwhile community event. We certainly couldn’t do it without these amazing volunteers who come ready to work and aren’t afraid to get dirty. They work so hard and are super competitive for bringing back the most trash- it makes the event so much fun. Having the community’s support and enthusiasm is vital to helping achieve our mission and “engage the citizens of Lewisville through service and education to enhance our community environment.” 

If you did not make the spring date, there is still time to organize your own clean up, Adopt-A-Spot, or have your own Clean Stream Team that you can care for year-round. For more information or to become a member of Keep Lewisville Beautiful, please email info@keeplewisvillebeautiful.org or call 972-538-5949.