The Louisiana Garden Club Federation, Inc. recently named Hammond the 2014 Cleanest City in Division H of Louisiana.
In 1959, LGCF was one of the first members of the National Garden Clubs, Inc. to host a “Cleanest City Contest.” This is the ninth time the home of the university has received this honor.
“We are honored,” said Pete Panepinto, Hammond mayor. “It takes an incredible team effort all year long of city employees and volunteers to win this award. We have many people dedicated to litter cleanup, environmental education and beautification.”
According to the LGCF website, the purpose of the “Cleanest City Contest” is to instill local pride in individual citizens to improve the appearance of towns and cities.
Panepinto noted two organizations most dedicated to the beautification of the city: Keep Hammond Beautiful and the Hammond Garden Club. These two organizations gave a presentation for America in Bloom during their visit last Thursday and Friday.
“The city’s Parks and Grounds Department is dedicated to litter cleanup and beautification efforts each and every day,” said Panepinto.
In addition, the university has played a big role in keeping Hammond clean and beautiful.
“Many people affiliated with the Physical Plant on campus work every day to ensure Southeastern is litter-free and beautiful by installing new landscapes and preserving the trees,” said Panepinto. “Southeastern students have volunteered for clean-up, the city days organized by Keep Hammond Beautiful and for clean-up activities during the Big Event.”
Southeastern’s Big Event is a day where students clean up and offer other services to the community as a thank you for their support of the university. It has helped improve Hammond every spring for five years.
Projects students worked on during the past few years’ Big Events have included painting fences, raking and bagging leaves, picking up trash, washing cars and gardening.
“It’s an absolute honor for our efforts to be recognized as a part of this award,” said Zach Whitehead, communication senior and co-head of the Big Event 2015. “The Big Event is held simply to give a big, well-deserved ‘thank you’ to Hammond for loving Southeastern. I feel very humbled that Hammond has won this award, and I am even more humbled to know that I was able to contribute to it.”
Panepinto says it is important to educate young people about keeping the environment clean in order to continue winning the honor of Cleanest City.
“We have invested more time in educating children about litter, recycling and the overall health of our environment,” said Panepinto. “This education and the incredible number of volunteers to help with cleanup days are critical to our success in the future.”