March 9, 2010 (Midland) — Over 3000 Midlanders will get together on Saturday, April 10, 2010, for one of the nation’s largest single-day cleanups – The Great American Cleanup/Don’t Mess with Texas Trash-Off – co-sponsored by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), Keep American Beautiful (KAB) and Keep Texas Beautiful (KTB), the grassroots arm of the Don’t Mess with Texas campaign and Keep Midland Beautiful. Participating groups will cleanup their designated area on the morning of April 10th, and then attend a celebration picnic at Hogan Park from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

The event is open to anyone interested in making Midlands’ public spaces litter-free. Adopt-a-Highway groups are in charge of highway cleanup, while Keep Midland Beautiful volunteers focus on neighborhoods, city streets, parks, and vacant lots. From Midland,2970 volunteers from122 groups collected almost 72 tons of litter at the 2009 event.

“The annual Don’t Mess with Texas Trash-Off brings people across the city together to clean up our roadsides and take pride in Midland,” says Doreen Richardson, Executive Director of KMB.

The Don’t Mess with Texas Trash-Off began in 1985 to highlight the call to action to refrain from littering. In 1987, the Trash-Off expanded to include all of the Adopt-a-Highway groups in a one-day, statewide litter pickup. Research has shown that people are less likely to litter when roadsides are clean. Volunteers from Adopt-a-Highway and KMB work year-round to keep their communities and roadsides clean.

This year’s event is sponsored by H-E-B, Chevron, City of Midland, Secured Document Shredding, Taco Villa and Texas Burger, Permian Basin Area Wide Phone Book, Oncor Energy, Midland College, ReCom Resource Recovery, Community National Bank, Midland Memorial Hospital, Mid-Tex of Midland, The Bosworth Company, Suddenlink, Duncan Disposal, Oxy, Atmos Energy and Butts Plastering.

Keep Midland Beautiful educates and engages Midlander in litter prevention, beautification and waste management. For more information visit www.keepmidlandbeautiful.org, or call 687-7400.