Q&A with Lea King-Badyna, Executive Director of Keep Golden Isles Beautiful
If you appreciate the beauty of Georgia’s coasts, you’re going to be a big fan of the work behind this local affiliate. Join us for a conversation about salt marshes, marine debris, and the remarkable impact students and volunteers can have on the environment.
How long have you led Keep Golden Isles Beautiful? What drew you to the position?
I’m going into my eighth year at Keep Golden Isles Beautiful. Most of my career has been in the coastal environment realm, or in higher education. I’ve had jobs that allowed me to work with the environment, volunteers, and community partners, so when this opportunity arrived, it felt like a perfect match! It involves many things I’m interested in and passionate about: conservation, coastal natural resources, and sustainability. In fact, 18 years ago, I donated a kidney to my mom, so I like to tell people I can talk about recycling many items, from body parts to trash, and anything in between!
What environmental improvements have you seen over the years?
In my time with Keep Golden Isles Beautiful, I’ve noticed a greater awareness of litter. More people are cognizant of that now in our coastal community, and we have more folks interested in recycling, which is exciting. We’ve also seen our volunteer numbers increase, which is a definite need and a step in the right direction. It’s one of the things I’m most proud of—we’ve been a Keep America Beautiful affiliate since 1979, so we’re invested in the community and have that heritage to play off of. We fulfill about 7,000 volunteer opportunities each year now, from litter reduction to recycling to beautification efforts, and people participate in everything from Marsh Madness (Keep Golden Isles Beautiful’s spring cleanup series) to our cigarette litter prevention program to our litter prevention sculptures.
You’ve got a lot of great initiatives! Tell us about some of your favorite projects.
Marsh Madness is my favorite. Georgia is unique in that we have roughly one-third of the remaining salt marshes on the Eastern seaboard. For our little 100 miles of beaches, to have several thousand miles of estuary shoreline is huge. People don’t always think about the function and purpose of salt marshes—how they absorb water from storms, help filter out toxins, and provide breeding grounds for sea life. It’s nobody’s job to remove trash from the marshes either. Were it not for our volunteers, that trash could become marine debris and get into the ocean. It’s cool to see the positive impact these events have on our community.
I also love our third-grade education program. It’s called “Is Trash Really Trash?”, and Christy, our executive assistant, and I developed it ourselves. We teach kids about the difference between landfills and dumps, about recycling, upcycling, and smart consumer choices, and try to instill life skills that will help in sustainability efforts. Through a grant, we’re able to give each student a pencil upcycled from newsprint and a recycled bookmark, and we leave every school an environmentally themed book for their library. We’re in the process of taping the program this year, so third-grade teachers can show it in their virtual classrooms, but outside of COVID, we really enjoy that one-one-one time with the students. We hear from parents all the time that once their kids go through the class, they pay more attention to what’s happening at home. They encourage their families to recycle and ask to take reusable bags to the grocery store. It really has a positive effect on them.
KGIB volunteers at Blythe Island
What more do you envision for Keep Golden Isles Beautiful? What would you like the community to look like in five, ten, or even twenty years?
We envision Keep Golden Isles Beautiful to continue to forge strong community partnerships with local government, higher learning, other nonprofits, local businesses, and the public. We really see our role as bringing multiple partners to the table to work on community improvement projects. One of our primary roles is to bring folks together with activities, grants, and thinking outside the box. We really want to lead the way there, and see our initiatives continue to grow.
Any advice for people looking to make their communities cleaner, greener, or more beautiful?
My advice would be to take advantage of any clean, green, and beautiful opportunities you hear about, even if that means going solo to a recycling or cleaning event. Come on and join us, and we promise, it will be great! If nothing exists in your area, talk to your government or local organizations about starting your own.
If you would like to learn more about starting an affiliate in your hometown, contact us.