Keep Ohio Beautiful Loses a Friend and Leader in the Recycling Industry
Jerry Bannister, one of the most passionate and committed friends of Keep Ohio Beautiful and affiliates Keep Perrysburg Beautiful and Keep Toledo-Lucas County Beautiful, passed away on April 5 at age 73.
A former KOB board member who stepped up to help revitalize the organization nearly 10 years ago, Jerry brought enormous insight and knowledge due to his years of work with both Keep Perrysburg Beautiful and Keep Toledo-Lucas County Beautiful and his long-term relationships on the national level with Keep America Beautiful. Besides helping to steer the KOB board during its early years, Jerry most recently helped establish KOB’s award program to recognize the best and brightest programs from affiliates and community organizations.
Jerry recently was honored by Keep Toledo-Lucas County Beautiful and Keep Ohio Beautiful, when the Jerry Bannister Green Stewardship Award was established for to honor outstanding accomplishments in the region.
“He was a mentor to so many people in his community, at KOB and around the country,” said KOB board president Lee Oberlag. “We are truly blessed to have had Jerry’s expertise and enduring commitment as an example of what can be done when you have a passion for the environment.”
Jerry had a long and distinguished career in sales with Owens-Illinois. Later in his career, he served as O-I Director of Recycling and Public Affairs and he played an important role in getting the internal government affairs function re-established.
Even after his early retirement over a decade ago, Jerry continued to volunteer his time for O-I by representing the Company at various recycling conferences and in a number of environmental organizations.
Jerry is survived by his wife Sheri, three children and several grandchildren.
The Keep Ohio Beautiful family will sorely miss this cherished friend, Jerry Bannister.
Dangers of and How to Combat Metal Scrapping, Tires, Meth Labs and Illegal Dumps will be Covered at Environmental Law Enforcement Training Workshop in Lewis Center
Local and state environmental crimes experts will share their knowledge
at FREE training workshop in Lewis Center on September 19.
The workshop will be held Friday, September 19, 2014, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Delaware County Board of Developmental Disabilities 7991 Columbus Pike Lewis Center, OH 43035
A REGISTRATION FORM can be downloaded soon or call 330-338-8328.
Funding for the workshop is provided by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. Registered Sanitarians and Sanitarians in Training can receive 5.0 CEUs, SWANA Professionals can receive 5.0 CEUs, and Certified Legal Education is available can receive 5.50 CLEs.
If you can’t report or announce this workshop, please consider sharing via your social media networks.
2014 Environmental Law Enforcement Training Workshops to be held:
October 24 – Perry County – New Lexington
December 5 – Clermont County – Miami Township
Additional workshops to be held in 2015! – Schedule Coming this Summer
SAVE THE DATE!
Friday, July 11, 2014 – 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., registration begins at 8:30 a.m.
Keep Ohio Beautiful
Annual Meeting and Awards Program
…more information to follow – four new educational sessions, lunch, awards, raffle prizes, and our share-a-thon.
Also, Jennifer Jehn, Keep America Beautiful’s New President/CEO will be joining us.
Attached is the AWARDS APPLICATION FORM!
Deadline extended to June 13th
Franklin Park Conservatory & Botanical Gardens
The Veridian Room
1777 Broad Street
Columbus, OH 43203
A group tour will be available following our Annual Meeting of
The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company Community Garden Campus
Keep Ohio Beautiful’s National Painting Week Ohio
Grant Winners Announced
Keep Ohio Beautiful is pleased to have announced grant winners of the National Painting Week Ohio Program sponsored by Sherwin-Williams. Designed to provide community groups with paint and painting supplies, the program enables these groups to renew a community structure in need into something beautiful through the application of fresh paint and a lot of elbow grease. During the months of April through July, the four (4) grant winners will transform their structure utilizing up to 40 gallons of exterior paints and painting supplies.
The four (4) Ohio grant winners are as follows:
- Summit County Historical Society, Akron – Keep Akron Beautiful
- Paramount Identity Project, Cincinnati, Keep Cincinnati Beautiful
- City of Vermilion Gazebo, Vermilion – Keep Lorain County Beautiful
- Downtown Youngstown Project, Youngstown – Green Youngstown
Keep Ohio Beautiful received many applications from across the state, and grant winners were chosen based on their applications. Two of the awardees will receive an additional $500 gift card at the end of the project for community improvement projects, based on reporting and the winner of two criteria; best visual impact and best community revitalization story.
National Painting Week, in its third year, is slated for the week of April 7. Sherwin-Williams employees across the U.S. will dedicate their time, effort and Sherwin-Williams products to upgrade nonprofits, churches, schools and other deserving community organizations.
“We are proud to bring National Painting Week to Ohio and the cities of Chicago and Milwaukee,” said Tim Baechle, vice president of marketing, Sherwin-Williams. “It is a valuable new program and I encourage community groups in Ohio to take full advantage of this great opportunity.”
“Through our partnership with the Sherwin-Williams Company, National Painting Week in Ohio empowers community groups to take a direct role in community revitalization efforts,” explains Michael Mennett, executive director of Keep Ohio Beautiful. “Something as simple as a fresh coat of paint on a public library or community center sends a strong message that we care about our communities.”
For additional information regarding Keep Ohio Beautiful’s National Painting Week Ohio Program, please contact Michael Mennett, Keep Ohio Beautiful at 330-338-8328 or mmennett@keepohiobeautiful.org. 2015 Grant will open in October 2014.
HOW TO ORGANIZE YOUR OWN GREAT AMERICAN CLEANUP™
Do you have any community eyesores? How many times have you passed by a litter-strewn park or graffiti-splashed building and wished it would go away? Perhaps it’s the local playground plagued with garbage or maybe a recycling effort needs a jump-start. Whatever the concern, a solution is just around the corner. All it takes is someone to say “enough is enough” and work with community members to eliminate the problem. It’s a great way to improve your local community and be one of the millions of volunteers involved in the Great American Cleanup!
Visit the Calendar of Events for More Information on How to become involved in Ohio’s Great American Cleanups!
Our Focus Areas
Studies have shown that a beautified community translates into a safe, healthy community and improves quality of life. Projects supported by Keep Ohio Beautiful encompass the three focus areas described below and include creating community gardens, preventing and cleaning up litter and graffiti, recycling and waste reduction.
Litter Prevention
In 2013, KOB and its affiliates removed 6,351,773 pounds of litter and debris from Ohio’s landscape.
Why It’s Needed:
While litter prevention campaigns have helped improve the litter picture over the past 40 years, it remains a significant and costly problem for communities and businesses. The Ohio Department of Transportation, for example, spends nearly $4.5 million every year to clean up our state roadways.
Litter also lowers assessed property values, drives away homebuyers and hinders business development.
How KOB Helps:
We identify the causes of litter and reduce its impact by organizing cleanups and promoting proper waste handling in our communities.
Waste Reduction and Recycling
11,453,965 pounds of solid waste kept out of landfills in 2013.
Why It’s Needed:
Recycling creates more jobs than landfills and incineration. Recycling conserves our natural resources, saves landfill space, conserves energy, and reduces water pollution, air pollution and the green house gas emissions that cause global warming.
How KOB Helps:
We help reduce the impact of solid waste in our communities through integrated programs and education about responsible consumerism, source reduction, reuse, and recycling, and landfills, composting and waste-to-energy technologies.
Beautification and Community Greening
Approximately 136,254 Ohio residents were touched through Keep Ohio Beautiful and its affiliates’ programs in 2013.
Why It’s Needed:
Community greening improves quality of life, lowers crime and engages citizens. Buildings with high levels of greenery had 48% fewer property crimes and 56% fewer violent crimes, according to the 2009 National Visible Litter Survey and Litter Cost Study, commissioned by Keep America Beautiful.
How KOB Helps:
We improve the visual aspects of our communities through programs that beautify and naturally clean our environment – creating community gardens, restoring vacant lots, beautifying highways and shorelines, urban forests, planting native flora, and preventing and abating graffiti.