Q&A with Catherine Harrell, Executive Director of Keep Crisp Beautiful
When’s the last time you checked your closet for items to give to someone in need? Join us for a conversation about cleanups, collection events, and how you can spark change in your community simply by shifting your perspective.
How did you find yourself in this role? Have you always been passionate about improving the environment?
Keep Crisp Beautiful is housed in our local chamber, and back in college, I had the opportunity to intern there. When this position opened later on, I already knew several people on staff from that experience, and that made me even more excited to apply. I grew up in the next county over, and I became passionate about the environment from a very young age. My family instilled those values in us from the start, telling us to save our trash for later instead of throwing it out the car window. Some of my friends actually told me that they weren’t surprised to see me in this role. They constantly hear me talking about Mother Earth. It’s just second nature to me.
Describe a typical day for us. (Or a handful of days, since we know none look the same!)
You never really know how a given day will go, but no matter how busy it gets, a few things stay the same for me week to week. I always take a ride around our community and stop by at least five businesses. I bring them goody bags filled up with cleaning supplies like gloves, trash bags, and information about our affiliate. I’ll send our super awesome cleanup crew to locations as needed, and if I see someone making improvements, I’ll bring them some sort of thank you for their efforts. It usually involves candy or something watermelon-themed. (A fun fact for our readers: did you know that Cordele is known as the watermelon capital of the world? Don’t forget to pay them a visit the next time Watermelon Days rolls around.) I also try to stay on top of our social media and content creation, and right now, I make sure to stop by our local cemetery to check on the trees we recently planted.
What have some of your favorite projects or events been so far?
I would definitely say that our various collection projects have been my biggest passion. We’ve collected books numerous times, and divided the donations among nursing home residents and a local crisis center that helps abused women and children. We’ve even placed some in our lending libraries. We’ve collected blankets for the homeless, and stuffed animals for the children in the crisis center. I don’t know if you’ve heard of trauma bears, but police officers will keep them in their vehicles for kids who have been in car accidents or need comfort for whatever reason. We want to expand that and give them to our fire department and EMTs as well. I love preventing all of these items from going to the landfill. People so often keep them in their closets, eventually just throwing them away, and it’s so much better to provide them to people in need.
I also really enjoy our RiversAlive events. We have a lot of 4Hers in our community who volunteer each year, and they always find interesting pieces of litter—recliners, all kinds of parts to cars and boats. We have a popular swimming spot called The Blue Hole, with your stereotypical rope swing and all of that, and it’s crazy what people will leave behind. I’m glad we have the opportunity to spread the word about the issue and clean these areas up.
Keep Crisp Beautiful volunteers after a community cleanup
What does your affiliate look forward to in the future? What further impact do you hope to see?
We’d really like to expand some of our recycling opportunities. At the moment, we don’t have a recycling center per se, just different places that do their own thing—one location does metal recycling, another takes batteries. We currently don’t have anything in place for glass or plastic—these are big things that most people recycle, and I would like to see that change. We also just want to keep growing, and continue to grow public interest in our mission. In the last few years, we’ve really seen an increase in people wanting to join in and beautify our community.
Any advice for people looking to make their communities cleaner, greener, or more beautiful?
Well, I would tell people to break the mold and think outside the box. I work in a rural community, so many times, I have no other option than to find new and creative solutions. You have to be able to approach issues that come up in different ways. Don’t ever be afraid to try something new!