Keep Lake Beautiful volunteers plant 300 trees and shrubs at Groveland Elementary School
As part of Keep Lake Beautiful’s ongoing efforts, more than 30 volunteers joined Lake County Commissioner Leslie Campione in planting over 300 shrubs and trees at Groveland Elementary School this week.
“The goal of Keep Lake Beautiful is to not only clean up litter in neighborhoods and along roadways, but to also work together to enhance and beautify our community,” said Commissioner Campione, who spearheaded the KLB initiative.
The group planted trees and drought-tolerant plants at the school’s entrance, and installed trees along Parkwood Street and around a nearby stormwater pond.
The project was organized by the KLB Advisory Committee, including Groveland City Councilwoman Dina Sweatt, Brent McCallister and Lavon Silvernell. It was sponsored by Cherry Lake Tree Farm and Niagara Bottling, both of which provided volunteers for the event. Cherry Lake Tree Farm, a Groveland-based business and recent County Alliance for Responsible Environmental Stewardship Award winner, donated the plants, Niagara offered food and bottled water for the volunteers and Ace Hardware offered a pallet of mulch.
“We were excited to work with our partners, including the city of Groveland, to get this project accomplished over spring break so that students and teachers can return to a spruced up campus,” said Brian Sheahan, director of Lake County’s Community Safety & Compliance Department and staff liaison to KLB.
Since its launch, KLB has hosted or partnered on nine projects including community cleanups and roadside litter pickups events, Adopt-a-Lake waterway cleanups, neighborhood and school beautification events, tree plantings, and household hazardous waste drop-offs.
The mission of Keep Lake Beautiful is “To beautify Lake County by engaging our community.” In May 2015, Lake County became an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, the nation’s leading nonprofit agency that focuses on building and maintaining vibrant communities.
For more information about Keep Lake Beautiful or to find out about future events and become a volunteer, call 352-343-9639 or visit www.lakecountyfl.gov/KLB.
