No Trash November cleanup event set for Nov. 14

Keeping The Valley Beautiful kicks off a month of cleaning up litter in Unicoi County this weekend as part of Keep Tennessee Beautiful's annual No Trash November in all 95 counties across the state. Keeping The Valley Beautiful sponsors two ways for the community to be involved, one of which would work for everyone. Help celebrate the sixth annual No Trash November campaign by picking up litter. Last year more than 77,000 pounds of litter was removed statewide, and in Unicoi county, 2,500 pounds was picked up, piece by piece and properly disposed of. A Community Clean Up is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 14, at the Kiwanis Little League ball fields at 549 S. Main St., Erwin (near the Armory). The cleanup will get started at 9 a.m. and continued until noon. All supplies, snacks and a free gift are provided. There's a chance to win four tickets to the Bristol Holiday Light Show sponsored by Livewire 103.9. For anyone who can't make it on that day, you can pick up litter any time in November through Nov. 28 on your street or anywhere in the county where it is safe and you see litter that needs to be picked up to make our county beautiful. Send results to keepingthevalleybeautiful@yahoo.com with the number of individuals in your group, the number of bags of litter you collected, list all large items that don't fit into the bag and photos of it all. Organizers need to compile all local reports and submit to Keep Tennessee Beautiful. Results will be announced in December. Stay tuned for a new program that Keeping the Valley Beautiful is working on for 2027 that will expand opportunities to continue local cleanups all year and get a personalized adopt-a-place sign. Unicoi County is an amazing place, so let's all do our part to keep it litter free.