Even as a kid on her family’s farm in Nashville, Arkansas, Melinda Glasgow knew she wanted to devote her life to bettering the environment.
Of course, Glasgow points out, practices considered green today like composting aren’t conscious environmental activities on a farm — they’re just common sense. “You weren’t doing them because you thought they were cool. You did them because that’s just what you did,” she says. “That’s where my love of the land started.”
She brought along that common sense in her move to Little Rock in 1984, where she put her marketing degree to use at the same ad agency where she met her longtime friend and later “partner in crime” Mimi San Pedro.
Glasgow’s passion for trash eventually led her into Little Rock city government, first in 2008 as recycling coordinator, then last year as sustainability officer. In 2009, she became executive director of Keep Little Rock Beautiful, the city’s Keep Arkansas Beautiful affiliate. This year, she and San Pedro — now the director at large of the Keep Arkansas Beautiful Foundation — have teamed up to celebrate Keep Arkansas Beautiful and its 25 years of hard work. It’s a labor of love that Glasgow, San Pedro and the rest of the event’s planning committee are happy to be part of.
“Mel and I have chaired numerous successful high-profile events over the years,” says San Pedro. “I’m the organized analytical one and she’s the inspirational motivator who gets everyone moving in the right direction — and with such class and charm!”
Dubbed the Greeniversary, the all-online event is the virtual birthday party of the Keep America Beautiful affiliate Gov. Clinton signed into existence on June 13, 1989. The venue is Greeniversary.org, where the public can make tax-deductible donations large and small, plan to volunteer or simply share a personal act of making the state a better place to live.
Keep Arkansas Beautiful has carried its three-prong mission to prevent littering, increase recycling and beautify communities across the state in its two and a half decades so far, and it’s proud of the progress it and its dedicated network of volunteers have made. The impact is so widespread you’re likely to owe Keep Arkansas Beautiful a thank-you if you’ve ever enjoyed an unspoiled scenic Arkansas highway or pristine forest trail.
Two annual statewide cleanups — the Great American Cleanup in the spring and the Great Arkansas Cleanup in the fall — make enormous dents in the state’s litter problem in parks and public spaces as well as along thousands of miles of roadways and shorelines.
During last year’s Great American Cleanup, some 25,000 volunteers in 149 local cleanups picked up more than 300,000 pounds of everything from cans and bottles to tires and illegally dumped appliances, plus the world’s most littered item: cigarette butts and other tobacco waste. The fall cleanup served host to 24,000 volunteers in more than 130 events; almost 1,000 showed up for the fifth-annual Keep Little Rock Beautiful cleanup this spring alone.
“It has been our overriding mission to develop in individuals a sense of responsibility in their local environment,” says Keep Arkansas Beautiful Commission Executive Director Robert Phelps, who joined the organization nearly 16 years ago. “I think we’ve accomplished that. The state is undeniably cleaner and healthier now than it was 25 years ago.”
For Glasgow and company, planning the Greeniversary is part of an essential fundraising and awareness campaign to keep its important work going for another quarter-century. Keep Arkansas Beautiful and its supporters recognize that city beautification and litter removal drives are far more than cosmetic solutions. There’s a vital link between clean communities, involved citizens and strong economies, not to mention the environmental benefit for the state’s ecosystems.
Combined, the Great American Cleanup and its fall counterpart contribute around $1.7 million worth of state improvement every year.
“Everybody likes to live somewhere that’s clean,” Glasgow says. “Communities that are clean and sustainable ultimately drive the economic prosperity.”
“When a state is clean and green, it’s attractive not only to the citizens who live there,” says Phelps, “but also to tourism, relocation, business development — every area of its environmental life.”
The Keep Arkansas Beautiful Commission’s efforts are impressive given its fixed state-funded budget and three full-time staff. Besides cleanups, its initiatives include the Arkansas Shine community awards, the annual Clean and Green Symposium and free classroom resources and activities. Its sister organization, the Keep Arkansas Beautiful Foundation, is there to fill the gaps when public funds are unavailable for things like rewarding hardworking volunteers. In recent years, the foundation has worked to expand public outreach on its own with programs like the elementary school-aimed Litter-Free Zone program made possible only by charitable giving and volunteering.
Glasgow and the rest of the Keep Arkansas Beautiful team have their sights set on a common goal: continuing the year-round work to make The Natural State a little more natural. It’s a goal Greeniversary celebrators hope we can all rally behind for the next generation of beautiful, sustainable and strong Arkansas communities.
“I think people really care and want to do the right thing,” Glasgow says. “They just may need some direction. … It’s really empowering letting people know that when they pick up a piece of trash, it really matters,” she says.