Q&A with Keep Irving Beautiful
Ensuring Valley Ranch remains a safe, beautiful and desirable place to live takes a lot of hard work and collaboration. While our focus on flood control may appear unrelated to Keep Irving Beautiful’s environmental initiatives, their work drastically improves our flood control efforts by reducing the amount of trash that ends up in our waterways and facilities. In preparation for KIB’s Annual Trash Bash on Sept. 23, we interviewed Rick Hose, Coordinator of Keep Irving Beautiful, about the history and mission of KIB and how you can get involved.
Q: Tell us about Keep Irving Beautiful (KIB) and your role.
A: I serve as the Coordinator for Keep Irving Beautiful, a nonprofit that is overseen by the City of Irving’s Parks and Recreation Department. Since 1992, we’ve been on a mission to educate and engage the community in the areas of litter abatement, beautification and recycling. Though we’re a staff of two, we work with thousands of volunteers each year – more than 4,000 in 2022. A big part of my role is matching groups with activities, whether they’re cleanups, tree plantings or beautification projects. We get so many volunteer groups from all areas – corporate, faith, schools, youth groups and neighborhood and civic organizations – and we’re always looking for more!
Q: What are some previous accomplishments of KIB?
A: One of the things we’re most proud of is our award-winning work. Irving has received the Governor’s Community Achievement Award five times from the Texas Department of Transportation and Keep Texas Beautiful. As part of the award, we received sizeable landscape grants that have helped beautify the city. Additionally, one of our longtime volunteers was recently honored with the Lady Bird Johnson Award from Keep America Beautiful for the Outstanding Volunteer in the Nation Award.
We’re also extremely proud of our ability to make KIB activities educational. Volunteers learn why litter abatement is important, they’re taught what items can and cannot be recycled and they learn all about proper care and maintenance of trees. We also have a popular environmental mascot skit that we bring to schools, libraries and recreation centers, where children learn about recycling in an entertaining way.
Q: What are KIB’s goals for the next year? Five years?
A: KIB’s goals remain consistent – to continue to engage the community in worthwhile endeavors that make Irving a cleaner, greener, better place for all.
Q: How can community members support your mission?
A: One of the best ways members of the community can support KIB’s mission is to add environmentally friendly activities into their daily routines. This could be recycling, picking up litter on a walk, planting flowers that attract butterflies and other pollinators, composting food waste, and of course, volunteering with KIB during one of our events.
Another great way to become part of the KIB family is to join the Adopt-a-Spot program. You choose a location, commit to pick up litter at least once a month and report to KIB on your activity. We currently have 96 adopted locations across the city but there’s always room for more.
Q: Are there any upcoming events that people can attend?
A: Our 32nd Annual Trash Bash is on Saturday, September 23 at T.W. Richardson Grove Park. This event is open to anyone, and registration is online on our website. The Irving Public Library staff will present puppet shows, a disc golf course will be open to play, the Water Utilities Department will have a prize wheel and giveaways, and the Urban Forestry Team will help volunteers pot tree seedlings to take home.
Valley Ranch residents, remember to mark your calendars for KIB’s annual Trash Bash on Sept. 23! We hope you’ll join us at this fun and educational event.