Lake Charles State Park Organizing Litter Pickup for Saturday October 6, 2012
Volunteers Needed to Help Keep Lake Charles State Park Beautiful
Volunteers are needed to participate in Lake Charles State Park’s annual fall litter pickup on
Saturday October 6, 2012. The cleanup is being held in conjunction with the Great Arkansas
Cleanup (GAC), the annual fall statewide litter pickup campaign promoted by Keep Arkansas
Beautiful (KAB), a state affiliate of Keep America Beautiful Inc. and a division of the Arkansas
Department of Parks and Tourism.
“Litter continues to be a problem in our park,†said Katherine Evans, Assistant Superintendent of
Lake Charles State Park and local coordinator of this year’s cleanup. “It is illegal to litter. It can
negatively affect our park’s potential to attract tourism. It has a devastating effect on our water
supply. It ruins the natural beauty of the byways, waterways and forests. We need to clean up
litter and keep it off our roadsides and out of our waterways.â€
Everyone is encouraged to participate in this year’s litter-pickup effort. Civic and service
organizations, church and youth groups, school groups and clubs, scouts, individuals, families,
neighborhoods, and businesses can put together cleanup teams and pitch in.
Volunteers should meet at the Lake Charles State Park Nature Center near the swim beach at
9am. The clean up should only take a couple of hours. Area to be cleaned up will be some of
the trails in the park, the park’s Adopt-A-Highway mile along Highway 25, the boat ramp areas
located along Highway 25, and the lake levy. Trash bags, gloves, hand sanitizer, and t-shirts will
be available for volunteers.
“Litter is everyone’s responsibility,†Evans said. “Although we aren’t all litterers, we do all visit
the park and must work together to keep it clean and green. We do this as a point of community
pride, to maintain our outstanding quality of life and to improve our economic health.â€
About the Great Arkansas Cleanup
The statewide kickoff date for the 2012 GAC is Sept. 8. Events are being organized across the
state during September and October as part of the annual fall litter-pickup campaign. Last year,
the GAC included 207 events across the state. More than 10,500 volunteers picked up almost
1 million pounds of litter and cleaned up nearly 800 miles of roadway, more than 200 parks
and public areas, and 659 miles of shoreline. The volunteer-driven effort provided the state and
participating communities a cost-saving value of more than $850,000.
The Great Arkansas Cleanup grew out of an effort that began more than 40 years ago as the
Greers Ferry Lake and Little Red River Cleanup. In 1985, U.S. Sen. Dale Bumpers guided
legislation requiring an annual pickup event during the weekend after Labor Day on all federal
lands. This law, the Carl Garner Federal Lands Cleanup Act, honors the founder of the event.
Mr. Garner continues his advocacy for a clean and litter-free environment as a member of the
Keep Arkansas Beautiful Foundation board of directors. The first statewide GAC was organized
in 1989.
The GAC is sponsored by the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, Arkansas State
Highway and Transportation Department and Keep America Beautiful Inc. Sponsors help
provide needed cleanup supplies to GAC participants.
About Keep Arkansas Beautiful
As a certified state affiliate of Keep America Beautiful Inc., Keep Arkansas Beautiful works to
inspire and educate individuals to reduce litter, recycle and keep Arkansas beautiful. It operates
as a division of the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism and is overseen by a nine-
member commission appointed by the governor. KAB is funded by 1 percent of the eighth-
cent conservation tax and, by utilizing volunteers, returns to the state a cost benefit of $6.02
in community service for each program dollar spent. For more information about KAB, call
toll-free 888-742-8701, visit KeepArkansasBeautiful.com or stay connected at Facebook.com/
KeepArkansasBeautiful or YouTube.com/DontLitterAR.
Lake Charles State Park is one of the 52 state parks administered by the State Parks Division
of the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism. The park offers camping, boat launch
ramp, a standard pavilion, picnic sites, swim beach, nature center, playground, restrooms and 3
bathhouses on 645-acre Lake Charles. Along with the visitor center and gift shop, the park offers
three nature trails and year-round interpretive programs. For more information about park events
contact the park at (870) 878-6595 or visit www.ArkansasStateParks.com.