Photo by Keep Durham Beautiful
Thursday, April 18, 2024
By Alyssa Clark
With Earth Day approaching on April 22, the Durham community is looking for environmentally conscious ways to help its city thrive.
Earth Day is every day in Durham for organizations like Keep Durham Beautiful that aim to make the community a cleaner place to live.
Keep Durham Beautiful is a nonprofit organization which is an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful.
Keep America Beautiful was founded 1953 with efforts to promote national cleanliness and litter prevention.
The Durham affiliate started with the City of Durham and Durham County’s desire to collaborate with a nonprofit that could connect projects and public places in the community.
Keep Durham Beautiful is celebrating its 20th year as an official organization this year.
The organization collaborates with Durham communities by picking up litter and working as a community to be stewards of the environment.
“It is very satisfying to just drive around Durham and see trees that we’ve planted and gardens that we’ve built and just really see the impact of the work of the volunteers,” said Tania Dautlick, executive director of Keep Durham Beautiful.
Dautlick has been executive director for 12 years, but started her journey as a volunteer.
“We really are improving the environment in Durham and also engaging members, and getting to know one another and building a sense of connection,” said Dautlick.
Keep Durham Beautiful’s volunteers work hard to keep the city clean. Volunteers collect an average of 80,000 pounds of litter each year, plant trees, start gardens and get rid of invasive plants around Durham.
“It’s super meaningful to me (to be able to do this for Durham). I definitely see the impact of the volunteers everyday,” said Dautlick.
Many events are held in April, around Earth Day, to promote a big push for environmentalism.
The 2024 Durham Earth Day Festival is on April 21 at Durham Central Park. Keep Durham Beautiful hopes to showcase environmental practices with the goal of helping people be more sustainable in their day-to-day lives.
Keep Durham Beautiful’s newsletter provides information to those who are interested about more events and volunteer opportunities happening with the nonprofit.
Find out more about events happening for Earth Month to make a positive change in the community.
Edited by Carly Breland and Jessica Walker