With Earth Day quickly approaching (April 22), there's a national campaign called "Keep America Beautiful" that encourages people to get out and help clean up their communities. That national campaign has been adopted by our Mohawk Valley Region which includes 6 counties: Fulton, Herkimer, Montgomery, Oneida, Otsego, and Schoharie Counties with "Keeping the Mohawk Valley Beautiful" (KMVB).

This local campaign is kicking off in Otsego County on Monday, April 11 at 10:00 am on the steps of Oneonta's city hall where mayor Mark Drnek, along with Assemblyman John Salka will hold a news conference to kick off "Keeping the Mohawk Valley Beautiful". At this event, people can get clean-up supplies needed for collecting litter:  garbage bags, gloves, and water bottles for all volunteers who want to conduct a cleanup. Attendees will also get an opportunity to sign up their community cleanup group to participate in this campaign on Saturday, April 23 (following Earth Day) which will be the clean-up date in communities. If you can't attend this event, groups can sign up at OHSWA.org.

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It's a great activity for groups and families to participate in considering that there seems to be so much litter along our roadways! Here's a staggering statistic from the Mohawk Valley Economic Development District, Inc.: there are still 2,000 pieces of litter per mile along roadways and waterways across the U.S.! Wow, we need to get busy on the cleanup! If everyone got out and just cleaned up right around where they live, what a difference that would make!

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