In 1979, Frances
Sturgis, friend of First Lady, Lady Bird
Johnson who introduced the national
beautification effort during Lyndon B.
Johnson’s presidency, convinced Waco leaders
to establish the Greater Waco Beautification
Association. Nine people met to discuss the
needs for an active, ongoing beautification
effort. The Environmental Commission and
the Image Committee of the Chamber of
Commerce were unanimous in their backing of
this new association.
In 1980, the
organization incorporated and became a 501c3
nonprofit organization called Keep Waco
Beautiful. By 1984, Keep Waco Beautiful had
become a certified affiliate of Keep America
Beautiful and Keep Texas Beautiful with 437
members.
Keep Waco Beautiful's
countless volunteers have given tens of
thousands of hours to cleaning, beautifying,
recycling, educating and creating community
awareness through the years.
Recently hundreds of
volunteers and members, current as well as
former, met to celebrate Keep Waco
Beautiful's 25th anniversary and to honor
founder, Frances Sturgis. They recalled the
fun, but hard work that went into all of the
many activities and events throughout the
years. As they mingled, no one could help
but notice that the community spirit and
community pride was still there. It filled
the room. There was still so much desire to
give to this community, so much hope for its
future, so much pride in its
accomplishments. Keep Waco Beautiful has a
wonderfully strong volunteer base with a
better community its constant goal. After
25+ years, the mission is still unchanged;
to make Waco a clean, healthy, safe, and
more beautiful place to live and work.
And now the next 25
years is well underway. Keep Waco Beautiful
continues to host cleanups and landscaping
events. We continue to educate students and
residents. We continue to hold Arbor Day
celebrations and bring exciting new programs
and events to the community. We keep
hosting Holiday on the Square and lighting
the community Christmas Tree. We will still
contribute large projects such as Heritage
Square to the community. Keep Waco
Beautiful continues to offer service to this
community in the form of enhanced quality of
life. Those issues are vital to a thriving
community and often go unnoticed when they
are accomplished well. A good quality of
life will result in retention of happy, more
satisfied residents and businesses and will
aid in attracting new businesses and
citizens as well.
