Every year, a select number of individuals are recognized with Keep America Beautiful’s most prized volunteer recognition at its annual National Awards Ceremony.
Among this year’s honorees for Keep America Beautiful’s pre-eminent awards for volunteerism were Iron Eyes Cody Award winner Kevin Perry, executive director of the Georgia Beverage Association, and the Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson Award winner Florence Cline, longtime board member of Keep Alachua County Beautiful in Gainesville, Florida.
The Iron Eyes Cody Award was created in honor of Keep America Beautiful’s landmark public service advertising and awareness campaign of the 1970s, which is credited with awakening the environmental consciousness of an entire generation of Americans. The Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson Award was named after the former first lady for engaging our nation in recognizing that aesthetic beauty is directly related to healthier communities, a cleaner environment, lower crime and a better quality of life. These awards honored the exceptional volunteer leadership that Perry and Cline have demonstrated throughout the state of Georgia and in the Gainesville, Florida area.
In receiving the Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson Award, Cline commented:
“Lady Bird Johnson helped forward the Highway Beautification Act as a direct result of her rides from Texas to Washington, where she recognized the need for improvement in the beautifying of our country’s roads. I have felt the need to carry on the same devotion and challenge as we continue to look around this beautiful country.
This amazing award belongs to all of us as we are daily faced with the need to keep our environment healthy. The work Keep America Beautiful aspires to do says it all in the title of this great organization. We all need to put on this mantle of pride and commitment. Thank you so very, very much for this amazing honor. I cannot express how deeply touched I am to receive it.”
Additional individual achievement and leadership awards were presented to Amy Tasto of Keep Lake Jackson (Texas) Beautiful, who received the Young Professional Award; Evelyn Copeland, executive director of Keep Simpson County Beautiful in Braxton, Mississippi, who received the Sue Smith Professional Leadership Award, recognizing a stellar Keep America Beautiful affiliate director; and The Coca-Cola Company, which received the first Carolyn Crayton Award. The Carolyn Crayton Award recognizes an organization, board member company or individual board member of a local Keep America Beautiful affiliate for its long-standing service and contributions to the sustainability of the affiliate.
For a complete list of National Awards recipients, click here.