North Lake Times

In October, Keep Lake Beautiful (KLB) received the Outstanding Education Involvement award at the Keep Florida Beautiful (KFB) conference. KLB won the award for its educational programming and youth initiatives.  In 2022, the agency was able to reach 270 students in six schools through these programs.

KFB recognizes that the success of any environmental program relies on educating the next generation of environmental stewards to continue our initiatives. This award honors an affiliate that has engaged in youth education that focuses on changing attitudes and behaviors regarding environmental issues – such as litter, recycling and preserving our natural resources.

This summer, KLB developed three different educational programs to bring to the Summer Extended Learning Centers in Lake County Schools:

-          Lesson plans were developed for a program called Our Water Resources, which teaches students about the watershed and how important it is to keep pollutants out of our lakes. During the lesson, students build a hands-on watershed model and “make it rain” so that they can see how pollutants are washed into our lakes and streams. KLB teamed up with Trout Lake Nature Center to include live animals in two of the schools. 

-          Sorting Out Litter encourages students to considering how their behavior affects our world. The day includes reading The Wartville Wizard and a lively discussion about what would happen if people had to carry their trash around. We bring activities that focus on reducing, reusing, and recycling trash so that it will not make its way to the litter stream. 

-          The final program recognized is the agency’s Recycle Right initiative. Lake County’s Solid Waste department helped KLB design a campaign focused on keeping towns clean, putting litter in its place, and recycling properly. 

KLB’s mission is to beautify Lake County by engaging the surrounding community. Keep Lake Beautiful credits the Lake County residents who have volunteered their time to beautify the county, one clean up at a time. They also applaud the support of the numerous Lake County BCC programs who offer their assistance: Household Hazardous Waste, Solid Waste, Emergency Services, Road Operations, Mosquito Control, and Adopt-a-Lake.

For more information on Keep Lake Beautiful and its programming, visit: https://c.lakecountyfl.gov/keep_lake_beautiful/.

Original source can be found here.