Make A Difference Day is the most encompassing national day of helping others -- a celebration of neighbors helping neighbors. Everyone can participate. Created by USA WEEKEND Magazine, Make A Difference Day is an annual event that takes place on the fourth Saturday of every October. Read more about Make A Difference Day.

Keep America Beautiful's Great American Cleanup, the nation's largest community improvement program, takes place annually from March 1 through May 31, and involves an estimated 3 million volunteers and attendees nationwide. Hardworking volunteers donated more than 5.2 million hours in 2009 to clean, beautify and improve more than 32,000 communities during more than 30,000 events in all 50 states and beyond. Read more about the Great American Cleanup here.

The Texas Waterway Cleanup Program helps communities and organizations establish waterway cleanups and litter prevention activities to improve and maintain the quality of surface water. Running year-round, the program provides participants with free gloves, trash bags, litter pickup tools, posters, educational activities, and more. From youth groups and scout troops to neighborhoods and businesses to entire communities, no cleanup is too large or small! For more information, visit the Keep Texas Beautiful site.

The City of Temple encompasses parks, gardens and trails. These areas provide our community with an enhanced quality of life through recreational spaces, picnic spots, exercise opportunities, and community gathering areas.

Temple has a remarkable 49 developed parks and special use areas. The parks supply animal habitat, flood control, climate control and oxygen producing trees. These features are vital to maintaining a healthy lifestyle for our community. Parks, gardens, and trails also help attract businesses to our area which improves Temple’s economy.

The Adopt a Park program offers a way to help our environment and preserve our parks, gardens and trails for the future. Sustaining the integrity of our environment now helps to ensure a healthier tomorrow. Groups or individuals who adopt Temple parks provide service hours, helping to keep our parks clean and well-maintained.

For information on how to participate, click here.

Cigarette butts are the most‐littered item in America, representing nearly 30 percent of all items documented in nationwide clean‐up initiatives. KTB in conjunction with Keep Texas Beautiful and Keep America Beautiful has implemented an ongoing campaign to educate smokers to take responsibility for their butts. Like the Keep America Beautiful prevention program, four proven approaches have been integrated into the local campaign: encourage enforcement of litter laws that include cigarette litter; raise awareness about the issue using public service messages; assess the number of ash receptacles at transition points such as entrances to public buildings; and distribute pocket ashtrays to adult smokers. In 2008, nearly 200 communities reported an average 46% reduction in littered butts as a result of implementing the program.

“The cigarette litter prevention program has been proven effective. Simple actions like installing ash receptacles and distributing pocket ashtrays have made a big difference in decreasing litter and ultimately keeping communities beautiful,” said Tanya Gray, executive director of Keep Temple Beautiful. “This is not an anti‐smoking campaign, but rather a campaign to educate smokers to take responsibility for their butts. By raising awareness, we expect similar reductions here in downtown Temple.”

An initial scan has been conducted by KTB in the areas listed: Central, Adams, Main, 1st, 2^nd & Avenue A streets. Cigarette butt litter in these areas have been monitored throughout the campaign. Scans are conducted in June and September to track and evaluate the success of the program. Partially smoked cigarettes, matches, disposable lighters, packaging and cigarette butts are all part of a growing national litter problem. When these items end up on the ground and not in a receptacle, it is considered litter and in violation of Temple’s municipal ordinance. The litter law is enforceable and carries penalties. The “No Butts About It” campaign aims to educate smokers on these laws. For more information, please contact Keep Temple Beautiful at (254) 493-4000.

Texas Recycles Day is a statewide public awareness campaign that aims to educate Texans on the environmental and economic benefits of waste reduction and recycling. Its success served as the model for the development of America Recycles Day. Texas Recycles Day is working in cooperation with the State of Texas Alliance for Recycling (STAR), formerly known as the Recycling Alliance of Texas, to give all Texas Communities access to America Recycles Day materials and resources.

You can find out more here.

Project Redirectory is a partnership between AT&T and Keep Temple Beautiful. Schools are challenged to collect out-dated phone books in a competition that nets the top three winning schools cash toward the upkeep of their programs. See a video on the program here. Watch this website and our Facebook page for information about this year's Project Redirectory competition!