KTMB keeps our area clean

Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful is a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to creating a cleaner, more beautiful region through education and active community involvement.

For more than 25 years, KTMB has been working with local businesses, city and county municipalities, community groups, and more than 3,000 volunteers every year to keep our open space hills, the Truckee River, business corridors, and our neighborhoods beautiful for all to enjoy through our beautification, advocacy and education programs and projects.

Volunteers range from individuals and service groups, to local and national companies that support employee volunteerism.

Our two most recent cleanups, the Great Community Cleanup in May, and Truckee River Cleanup in September, brought out more than 1,600 volunteers, combined. Our volunteers removed 165 tons of trash, tires, and invasive weeds along 20 miles of the Truckee River, and 18 community sites.

With the help of key community partners, KTMB works towards solutions for hot topics that affect our community like illegal dumping in our open spaces and along the river, graffiti, and invasive weeds.

From garden plantings and cleanup events, to hands-on youth activities, there are so many ways individuals and businesses can get involved to Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful.

Started by the Biggest Little City Committee, KTMB was founded in 1989 as Western Nevada Clean Communities (WNCC). A clean community was one of the Committee’s major priorities, and they began the Adopt-A-Park program to involve citizens in hands-on volunteer activities to spruce up parks and the Truckee River. Realizing the entire community would benefit from a year-round focus on the issue of cleanliness, the Committee set about developing a new, separate organization affiliated with Keep America Beautiful and in January 1989, WNCC officially became the organization we know and love today: Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful (KTMB).

Adopt-A-Park (still a key program), was joined by Phone Book Recycling in 1991, the kick-off of the Nevada Keep it Clean Campaign in 1992, KTMB’s Christmas Tree Recycling in 1993, and Adopt-A-Spot roadside litter cleanup in 1994. In 1997, KTMB partnered with the City of Reno to develop a Graffiti Hotline, which later evolved into Reno Direct, and the 329-DUMP illegal dumping hotline. A presentation for children developed first by The Trash Lady, Beth Isaef, morphed over the years into the Waste Warriors education program.

KTMB continues its efforts to keep our area beautiful through education, cleanup events and community engagement. For more information on how you can get involved as a volunteer or donate to our community-funded organization, please contact us!

For more information, go to http://ktmb.org/ or call 775-851-5185.