Keep Knoxville Beautiful, better known as KKB, is a nonprofit service organization here in Knox County. The group was founded in 1978 as a solution to clean up around the city before the 1982 World’s Fair.
From there, KKB has grown immensely, and through the formation of their Youth Advisory Board as well as their connections to UT’s campus, they have become a big organization for students to volunteer for.
Reagan Durkee, a senior majoring in neuroscience, works closely with KKB as her sorority’s service chair.
“KKB is a wonderful way for everyone, from college students to long-time residents, to come together and help make Knoxville a cleaner, more welcoming place,” Durkee said. “Thanks to KKB, our community looks brighter, and we all feel a deeper sense of pride and appreciation for where we live.”
KKB directly works with ServeUTK, which is UT’s website for tracking community engagement and providing students with information about upcoming events.
“Our mission is to inspire and empower Knox County communities to improve their quality of life through beautification and environmental stewardship,” Amanda Seale, KKB’s director of programs and the administrator for KKB on ServeUTK, said.
Through ServeUTK’s page for KKB, they have tracked over 5,000 volunteers, as well as over 30,000 hours of service. They typically host their cleanup events on weekends, giving students ample opportunities to attend.
“We have a really fantastic partnership with UT. We get a lot of our volunteers from the university which is incredible,” Seale said. “They’re always very enthusiastic and very hard-working.”
On occasion, KKB partners with different student clubs and organizations on campus for events. Some of their most recent events have included service mixers with different sororities and fraternities on campus, as well as a partnership event with the Student Government Association.
“I started volunteering with Keep Knoxville Beautiful through my sorority, Zeta Tau Alpha,” Durkee said. “It’s great to see KKB consistently partnering with campus organizations.”
KKB has been making an impact on Knoxville’s beautification. Just this past year, they reported picking up over 110,000 pounds of litter in the area. This is not only a huge difference for UT’s campus, but for the surrounding community as well.
“Donations to our organization help make these events happen and we wouldn’t be able to support a local school or create a beautiful landscape or host a large-scale litter cleanup [without donations],” Seale said. “We had a cleanup this past weekend with over 400 volunteers that picked up over 5,700 pounds of trash.”
On top of picking up trash on the streets, the organization also offers recycling resources and turns graffiti into murals. Students can get involved in many ways to help make Knoxville a much cleaner and better place.
The sustainability efforts of KKB are an important part of keeping the county clean and giving back to the environment. The more volunteers, the more work KKB can do.
“I find it really inspiring to see people who are taking time out of their day to go make a difference in the community and clean up our environment, creating these beautiful spaces, creating community amongst themselves, working alongside one another towards a common cause,” Seale said.
