Keep The Rez Beautiful has an extraordinary volunteer who has a passion for keeping the Ross Barnett Reservoir in Ridgeland, Mississippi, clean and beautiful!  

Nine-year-old Rebecca (Becca) Blair has been picking up litter and volunteering for kayak cleanups around the Reservoir and down the Pearl River, since she was 4!  

In March of this year, Becca decided to start a curbside recycling program in her new neighborhood as part of her Homeschooled Math requirements.  She also was tired of seeing litter in front of storm drains that head straight to the Ross Barnett Reservoir. With the support of her mother, Michelle, her Grandmother, and Keep America Beautiful affiliate Keep the Rez Beautiful

Becca had the additional motivation of wanting to reduce her family’s waste from going to a local landfill. Initially, she was going to tally the amount of waste for a month. With help from neighbors, she decided to offer her recycling project to 19 neighbors. 

She developed a flyer, “He Me Go Green and Recycle!”  As of this post, she has picked up and dropped off at the area’s recycling rolloff, 2,000 lbs of plastics — and counting!  Keep the Rez Beautiful (KTRB) donated Boat and Tote bags to Becca at the outset of her program. The bags are collected once a week from neighbors – Becca tallies the amount and off to the rolloff they go.

Becca recently requested 100 more bags for her Grandmother’s neighborhood of 80 homes. Another neighborhood in the area is also interested in her project. 

“An end result  might be our county supervisors seeing the need for curbside recycling,” said Jeannine May, executive director of KTRB. “That would be fantastic for the 29,000 people living in the area.”

 Becca and her family have also been on board with KTRB since it became a Keep America Beautiful affiliate in 2011.

See Becca Blair featured on Walt Grayson’s weekly WLBT-WDBD MS News Now “Making a Difference” feature here.