Keep Blount Beautiful Townsend Community Cleanup volunteers work mountain roadsides

As weekend events swung into action in Townsend on Saturday morning a small group of volunteers filed out into the city looking to keep the region’s natural beauty untainted by garbage. The seventh Keep Blount Beautiful Townsend Community Cleanup worked to clean the streets, sidewalks and greens of litter.

The cleanup, which KBB hosts in association with the Little River Watershed Association, equipped volunteers with garbage bags, trash pickers and safety vests before sending them out to search the grounds for litter. Recruits chose sections of East Lamar Alexander Parkway where they worked bagging trash and leaving the bags to be picked up by a work crew overseen by the Blount County Sheriff’s Office.

Although KBB organizes similar cleanup events in other areas of Blount County, Executive Director Britney Whipple said the organization’s Townsend cleanup is unique in the number of residents who come to help.

“They’re regulars, and they look forward to this. They call me to make sure it's happening,” said Whipple.

Working to keep the community clean, she said, fuels hometown pride.

The array of volunteers Saturday ranged from invested citizens to businesses trying to reinvest in the community. For Kristina Gauz, the event allowed her to support her new home while also getting out and meeting new people. She and her husband, Steve Rice, moved to Townsend in January and are already looking to give back.

Townsend is far less crowded and less expensive than her old home in San Diego, Gauz said, and she’s willing to work to make sure it stays clean. She was astonished by how quickly litter began to fill her bag Saturday morning.

“I don’t want to live in a trashed area,” she said.

For others, such as a delegation of employees from Everest Air Heating and Cooling, the cleanup was an opportunity to give back to the community. The business is located in Alcoa, but Lynnsey Williams said they do plenty of work in Townsend.

“We were looking for ways to get more involved in the community,” she said. The company reached out after seeing KBB post about the upcoming cleanup on social media and even brought its mascot along for the ride.

Keep Blount Beautiful’s next cleanup event is scheduled for Saturday, June 29, at Browns Creek.