Volunteers simultaneously clean 3 neighborhoods during inaugural Keep Lake Beautiful event

Around 130 volunteers collected nearly six tons of litter and debris during Lake County’s inaugural Keep Lake Beautiful cleanup, hosted simultaneously in Groveland, Leesburg and Sorrento.

“I think that the sky is the limit,” said Commissioner Leslie Campione, who helped clean up Sorrento on Saturday. “There are a lot of wonderful things we can do by focusing on areas that just haven’t gotten a lot of attention in the past to make them look better and instill community pride. We are trying to get people involved and let them know that we will have events available throughout the year.”

During the Sept. 19 community event, residents were encouraged to remove debris from their homes and yards. Volunteers also had an opportunity to pick up litter in the right-of-way along designated corridors.

Lisa DuRant, of the East Lake Leo Club, collected litter in Sorrento Park with her son, Ronnie.

“We love our community and we are very excited about this event,” said DuRant. “There is a lot of cleaning up that needs to be done and I hope we have this event more frequently. East Lake County is worthy of the gem that it is and we should all be pitching in to keep it that way.”

Ronnie said he was filling his trash bag with Gatorade bottles, newspapers and candy wrappers found scattered throughout the park. When asked what he liked best about participating in the cleanup, he said, “I like helping the community.”

The cleanups were sponsored by the Lake County Board of County Commissioners, Senninger Irrigation - a Groundwater Guardian Green Site, Niagara Bottling, Waste Pro, Progressive Waste Solutions and WCA.

Keep Lake Beautiful is a volunteer organization whose mission is “To beautify Lake County by engaging our community.” It is an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, the nation’s leading nonprofit agency that focuses on building and maintaining vibrant communities. For more information and to find out about future scheduled events, call 352-343-9639 or visit www.lakecountyfl.gov/KLB.