Believe it or not, I've found something besides pregnancy to spend my time on. Sure, it only took the entire last trimester-plus to do it, but I'm pretty freaking excited about this new opportunity.
"What's the opportunity?" you ask?
Well...
Drumroll puh-leeeeeeze.
You are currently reading the written words of the newest board member of Keep Covington Beautiful. Hooray!
Back story:
As everyone knows, we arrived in Covington in January, what we've been repeatedly told was the absolute worst time to move to the area in 25 years. Being the dead of a very cold, depressing and tough winter, we didn't spend a lot of time outside. My now-daily walks were non-existent, as were our Eden Park picnics and Findlay Market sojourns. It was, as Jason so perfectly puts it, balls cold.
But then March came and bloomed into April. While we've dealt with a few freak snow days (like this Tuesday, I kid you not), one can see that the warmer weather and beaming sun is working wonders on the city; once-dead foliage is erupting in greens, whites and pinks. The grass is sharpening it's hue from dull yellow to succulent green. For a couple of Pacific Northwesterners who are used to being surrounded by year-round green, saying this change is refreshing isn't quite enough. It's therapeutic, much needed and unbelievably appreciated.
That is...
Until you realize that beneath the green grass and behind the bubbly tulips is trash. A ton of it. Like, more litter than I've ever seen in one place at one time, save for the dump.
I really wish I was leaning here on my favorite literary technique of hyperboly, but I'm not. And it's super depressing.
While Jas and I commiserated for about a week worth of walking, we also talked about what we could do about it. No, we can't clean up the entire city but we can sure as hell get our neighborhood looking a bit shinier. So, after buying Costco-sized boxes of medical gloves and garbage bags, we made our after-work walks more productive and started picking up trash. It's made a difference already and has piqued the interest, thanks and assistance of our neighbors.
I quickly became addicted to the whisper of change and community betterment. Fueled by a newfound desire to clean up Covington, I visited the Keep Covington Beautiful (KCB) website after driving by an event banner for the umpteenth million time. The organization is awesome. They're dedicated to, as one can surmise by the name, making Covington a cleaner place to live through education and awareness. KCB aspires to create long-term change of conservation, protecting natural resources, accepting responsibility for maintaining public space, broadening community knowledge and maintaining a comprehensive beautification program for Covington.
KCB's main goals are to:
1. Keep Covington beautiful through litter abatement, waste reduction, recycling and conservation of natural resources.
2. Grow participation and generate citywide support of commercial recycling and environmental goals from public agencies, churches, neighborhood organizations, private owners of rental properties and non-profit organizations.
3. Facilitate and maintain beautification and greening projects along major entryways to and within the city through volunteer cleanup projects, the Adopt-A-Spot program and a Clean Catch Basin initiative.
4. Foster community and corporate pride and involvement through volunteerism.
And I get to be a leading part of this initiative! I became a board member just yesterday after attending the KCB's Wednesday board meeting. The board is full of community members who possess the same passion and desire for creating a better city today for the citizens of tomorrow that I do. It's an opportunity to make a real change and I'm really looking forward to getting my hands dirty. Literally.
The first event I may or may not get to be a part of (Depending on when this baby decides to evict itself) it the Great American Cleanup on Saturday, April 26th. While basically every aspect of the event is already planned and taken care of, Jas and I are planning on taking our bags, grabbers and gloves up Prisoners Drive and into/around Prisoners Lake to clean that area up (That way everyone can enjoy the lake's fishing without wading through beer cans and styrofoam cups). I also get to do some incredibly awesome packet-putting-together next week. Yessssssss.
I know, I know; becoming a board member 9 days before this baby HAS to be out of me seems insane. They understand I'm becoming a mom and it's okay. Regardless of how crazy and stressful being a new mom will be, I can't imagine there not being time to help out my community. After all, if I don't work to make a better world for my little one, why should I expect others to do so?
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