Keep Sevier Beautiful (KSB) hosted its annual Volunteer Appreciation Night on April 28 at the Rodney Atkins concert in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Volunteers were treated to free food, music, and friendship.

Keep Sevier Beautiful (KSB) announced its Trillium Award winners, and gave out $6,000 in scholarships to four Sevier County students. In addition, it recognized its 2017 Outstanding Volunteer of the Year Awards — Lucia Capozzoli in the adult category and Vahna Lee in the youth category.

Lucia first became involved with KSB through its annual Earth Day Festival in Gatlinburg. Recently, she volunteered at KSB Wears Valley Fall Fest, manning the Watershed Booth and educating the children in attendance about plastics, the three R’s, and KSB’s compost facility. Lucia also got her hands dirty by digging in and helping KSB plant at its National Planting Day program. Lucia describes herself as “an environmentalist and humanitarian at heart, with an even stronger passion for living a sustainable lifestyle to reduce my carbon footprint.” Lucia continues to dedicate her volunteer time to beautifying Sevier County and making it a cleaner, greener place to live.

Vahna, a 5th grade student in Sevier County, has been volunteering with KSB since 2014. Just this past year, Vahna volunteered by teaching recycling games at the Dixie Stampede, Pigeon Forge Elementary, and Catlettsburg Elementary Schools for their Fall Fests. She also worked the craft stations at KSB Wears Valley Fall Fest, all three days it ran, planted trees for the 100K Tree Day and has participated in KSB Roads and Rivers Cleanups. Vahna spends many hours volunteering with her Girl Scout Troop, planting trees and flowers at Optimist Park, and presenting the posters her troop made on recycling and composting to 15 children’s summer programs. Vahna usually gives up her school breaks to volunteer at KSB’s office, shredding paper, painting, and sorting and packing items for education lessons.

Keep Sevier Beautiful is honored to present Lucia and Vahna with the Outstanding Volunteer of the Year Awards. They look forward to continuing their volunteer passions and to help make a more beautiful Sevier County.