NEWS BLOG Dedicated to getting the word out to our Association Members and Friends..The blog will be updated weekly with news and events going on within the association and around the state. We hope that this will keep you all informed on upcoming issues and ideas. Please stop in weekly for updates....If you have anything to add, just contact a Board Member to get the news out.
Can We Talk!
That Is Better, Now What Seems To Be The Problem?
Week of January 21st, 2008
Wow, it has been a while. I do apologize again for the delay in getting back with everyone.I hope Christmas and the New Year was kind to all of you.The Board met the other day to finalize plans for the conference.It is going to be great this year. They have worked very hard to try to bring some new and exciting programs to the table.It is also election year for the SC Litter Control Association, so get ready to vote. We have an awesome motivational speaker coming to the event, courtesy "Keep South Carolina Beautiful".We are also going to the House of Blues for the awards dinner. It will be the ?Dinner Theatre? which is a great program. It will be fun to see who can solve the murder.
I hope that all is going well with everyone on the job.It is a new year and we need to make it an exciting one.I hope that all of you know what a big difference you make.Through your efforts, so many new and exciting programs have blossomed. Because of your efforts, a group in Virginia is trying to create a similar program in their state.You guys care so much about making this a better world and state. I applaud all your efforts and am proud to a member this organization.I will be writing more in the next couple of days to get you all updated as events unfold.I have updated the conference information.So if you are interested in attending, please go that page and click on the link to get with PalmettoPride to register.I have also added a "FUN LINKS" page that will take you to some fun sites involving environmental issues.Well, have a great day, and see you soon. Fish
Week of November 26th, 2007
Hello Everyone,
I hope that everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving. I do not have a lot to add today as we are having a meeting tomorrow with the Board to discuss the annual conference plans. I will try and add something in the next couple days about what was discussed and the event activities. We want all of our members and guests to feel that they are a part of this organization. So please stop back and see what exciting things we have scheduled for this years event. The elections will be held this year for the association so start thinking about who you would like to see in those offices. God Bless, Randy.
Week of November 19th, 2007
Hello Everyone, I hope all is well with everyone. Sorry for the lapse in time on the Blog. It has been crazy here. Of course that is the norm, so we are used to it. I went to Virginia and spoke to a group of very motivated individuals that want to start a Litter Control Association in Virginia. What a wonderful bunch of people. They had individuals from all aspects of the Litter fighting game. They really liked what we are doing here and have created a committee to look into the creation of a similar program in their state. It was a quick trip, put very worth while. A special thanks to the group of college students that let me share their Bible study at a small corner café in downtown Charlottesville on Halloween night. Great study, and awesome to see so many young people deep in the word.
I was able to work with the Keep North Myrtle Beach Beautiful Kids the other day. They are an awesome group and you can see some of their photos on the Hero Page. They helped with a City Wide cleanup and had a blast with some of my Officers that helped out. It is awesome to see young people motivated about making a difference in the world.
The conference stuff is going well. We have signed a contract with the Avista again for this year. They gave us the best prices and are working very hard to accommodate us in any way they can. We have also secured the House of Blues for our awards dinner. We really wanted to do something different this year for the members of our association so we are having a Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre for all. It is awesome and it should be fun to see who comes up with the right answers. I would say Spartanburg does not have a chance. The challenge is on to Don Arnold and his crew.
We are going to be applying for the Enforcement Grant and the Community Pride Grants. We have downloaded them and are actively working on them.
We are still looking for sponsors for our conference and assocation. We are a 501( c )3 organization and they can write off the donations . So be looking for anyone that is willing to help us out.
Well, must go. I have a History test to take and lots of work to get caught up on. It is once again night shift time. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and that you get to spend time with your families. God Bless my friends. May the Lord bless your week with success and lots of hugs!! Fish
Week of October 22nd, 2007
Wow, sorry that I am not keeping up. Had a great time in Woodstock Connecticut. The leaves were at peek and the weather was awesome. The beauty reminded me of why we do what we do! To see the leaves changing and the beauty that God has provided, I was reminded how mad I get when I see someone throw trash on the ground. I am still amazed by the idea that anyone finds this an acceptable behavior. That is why it is so important that we try to change the way people feel about littering. If we don't teach the youth of our communities the importance of being caretakers for this planet, than we will lose in the long run. It is vital that we educate our youth on the damage caused by litter. It is vital that we enforce litter laws and continue to push issues to protect our environment. Oh, before I forget, I promised to put some photos in of Jamie Nelson from Spartanburg in the Blog. It is amazing the situations that we can get into dealing with livability issues in our communities. It seems that Jamie has started a new profession as the Dog Whisperer?. The things we do for the job!
Let me get back to my trip to the North. I had a chance to stop by some of the recycling centers while in Woodstock Connecticut. I am kind of weird that way; I like to see what other states and counties are doing to help prevent litter. I have to say they really have it going on. The site was very well organized and being used by a lot of people. It was nice to see so many people taking the time to recycle.
Got a great e-mail from a friend in Moncks Corner. Archie loves to kayak and is a great cleanup specialist. He and a group from that area just picked up over two tons of trash during their beach sweep on Lake Moultrie this past weekend. Half of their pickup was able to be recycled. ROCK ON YOU GUYS!!!! Great job to all of you that participated in the cleanup effort. You can see Archie and some of his friends on our website from past cleanups.
I will be heading to Virginia this week to talk some trash. I love to brag on the individuals in our state that are doing so much to make a difference. God Bless everyone. Write you soon!! Randy
Week of Oct. 15th
Sorry about missing last week, but many things going on and lots of craziness. Hope all is well with everyone? The conference plans are going well. Had an awesome conference call last week to finalize some things. We are going to reserve the Avista again this year. I will meet with the folks from there on Weds to finalize that deal. We are waiting for an estimate for the House of Blues for the awards dinner. They put on a great buffet. We just have to see if it is going to fit into the budget for the event.. The one thing that the board really focuses on is the bottom line for the conference. This event has never been a money maker for the association and we do not want it to be. The goal is to make an affordable conference for all. By doing this we feel it opens the event up to so many other people. I think if you look around you would find this to be very true. Our rates for the conference are much lower than most. The board is actively seeking sponsors for the event this year. Ryan has done an incredible job lining up some potential sponsors and has been working so hard to get them on board. This is something all our members need to be doing. I hear so often that we need to do more. We are an association of members and those members need to be active with recruiting members and seeking sponsors. We are now a 501(c) 3 organization so that is very inviting to those that would like to give. The cookout is a go and will be held at a park near by. We hope that this can be a great time for everyone to fellowship. Of course we have a few people who are scared it may be to cold, so we will try and talk to the weather guys and see if they can hook us up with some warm weather.
Congrats to Lt. Riccio of Charleston. You may know him as Sgt. Riccio. He has been promoted and no longer works with the Livability Court in Charleston. He always did and awesome job with the program and was very instrumental in the building of many others. Rock on Riccio!, we are proud of you.
I have some photos I will be putting in next week. It seems Jamie Nelson from upstate has found a new occupation as a “Dog Whisperer” or should I say that his job has made him that. Pics to come.
I hope everyone is well and that the busy day is not getting to you? Just remember, take the time to tell that special someone that you love them. Take a moment to hug someone and let them know that people do care. Take time for yourself, the world will not stop revolving without you, even though we some times think so. I do not believe anyone on their deathbed ever said “I should have spent more time at the office” Love a lot, laugh a lot and enjoy the day, even when it is getting the best of you. And smile at everyone, it makes them wonder what you are up to. God Bless all and talk at you next week. Fish
Week of October 1st
Wow, is that crazy or what? Already October. I hope all is well with everyone? Work on the conference is going strong and it looks as if the Avista will be the place to be again this year. With all the positive feedback and the great room rates it is going to work out well. We are still working on the location for the awards dinner. We will let you now when that is completed. Another idea we had this year was to have one of the meals be a cookout. There is a great park with a large pavilion just 5 blocks away from the hotel. If it rains we would have cover, and Ryan has already agreed to help cook. We have a large mobile cooker at our disposal and we will use it!!! We just thought it would be nice to have a laid back good old fashion cookout with friends. Sherryl, there is also a great ball diamond there for softball. We will keep you posted on those plans as they develop. Sarah is also working on another awesome speaker for this year. The gentleman she is trying to get is very motivating and very entertaining to say the least. He will add a great deal to the conference.
I am also very excited to announce I will be traveling to Virginia on Nov 1st to speak to a group that is very interested in creating a program similar to ours. I just want you all to know it is because of all your hard work and dedication that they are interested in such a program. They have been to our site and feel that what we are doing is great. Again, this is because of all of you and the hard work you do every day to clean up South Carolina.
I would also like to get some feedback from the members on what you all think about making our regions smaller, maybe breaking them into two parts per region. I feel that if we do that it will make it easier for regional meetings and just getting together in general. Please e-mail me with your ideas on that matter. This is an association of members and I value your input on all matters dealing with the association. You have a wonderful group working on your board and they value your input as well. I can be reached at
If you have anything that you would like added to the weekly blog from your agencies, please contact me and let me know what it is you would like put out. I also plan to launch a message board on the site some time this month. The goal with that is anyone visiting our site can ask questions and communicate with the members. It is a great way to ask questions and have anyone watching the site give you ideas back. There are so many cool ideas being done within the state and country wide it will be awesome to share them. So keep an eye out for that. Well, must go and again, thanks for all you do.
Fish
Week of September 23rd
I hope this finds everyone well? I just got back from Florida. My wife and I traveled to the land of the big “Rat”, the one and only Mickey Mouse. Small crowds and no rain, so it was very good.
I do not know about you, but when I travel I am always looking at other states to see how clean they are and to see what they are doing to fight the litter problem. Of course in the make believe world of Disney, this is accomplished through incredible sanitation programs and a ton of manpower. Of course, these are two luxuries that many of us do not have at our disposal. I must say that Hwy 95 from Hwy 378 to the southern border of our state was very clean from what I saw. It is nice to see the PalmettoPride signs and all the efforts paying off. It is funny how often I receive letters from individuals that want to complain about the trash in our state but are not willing to come out and help on a cleanup or join and organization that is trying to make a difference. I do not care if people join our organization, I mean I would love them to join the SC Litter Control Association and help, but I just want them to join any organization that is trying to make a difference.It is easy to sit back and complain about a problem, it is another thing to get out and make an effort to change it. That is why I have so much respect for all of you and the efforts that you make everyday to change our state. It may be your job, but it has to be a passion or you wouldn’t do it. My hat is off to all of you for the great effort you show from day to day. I know how frustrating it can be to fight against litter day after day when people continue to find it acceptable to litter our state.
Efforts for the conference are going well.I just received a letter from Cindy who has been working hard at getting quotes for supplies for the event. The board is going to have a conference call in the near future to finalize some agenda issues and other aspects of the conference. I urge you to contact us if you have any ideas for the conference that you would like to see added to the event. I hope to have more information next week pertaining to the conference. The main thing is we need to try and get as many people to attend the conference as possible. We need to get as many people as we can on the same sheet of music in the fight against litter. It is so vital that we all get together and exchange ideas.
I just received an email from Archie who is a friend from the Moncks Corner area.They are getting ready to have a cleanup on October 13th and they are looking for volunteers. He is going to email me with more details or you can get him at ilike2kayak@juno.com
Week of Sept 16th, 2007
Hello Everyone,
Randy here. I hope that everyone is well? The reason for this blog is to get the word out to our members and friends about what is going on within the association. I hope that you will stop by often and get updated on what is going on. If you were here for the first time, please sign in to our guest book, we would love to hear from you.
The Board has met several times in the last few months to help create another successful conference for our members. We are looking at having the event In Feb. of 2008 at the Avista in North Myrtle Beach. The dates will most likely be the 20th, 21st and 22nd. This is the same location as last year.We received a lot of positive feedback from individuals that attended.We are going to have a joint effort with the Keep South Carolina Beautiful folks again this year and look forward to working with Sarah again. We are all in this together and need to work together to accomplish great things. So we felt that it was important to combine the events again this year. The agenda is being worked on as I write this blog with lots a great people coming up with wonderful ideas. We want to give our members some new material this year to work with and hopefully try when they get back to their organizations. We are going to try and work out the Alligator Adventure visit again for this year. We are also waiting on a response from House of Blues for an award dinner at that location. If you have any ideas for awards this year, please drop us a line and let us know who you would like to see nominated. We will be keeping you updated on the progress with the conference as the details unfold.
As for the association we are proud that we have received a 501(c) 3 status and look forward to getting some sponsors in the near future. We are asking any of our members who know anyone that may be interested in becoming a sponsor to please contact one of the Board members. We will be featuring our sponsors on the website in the near future.
It is an exciting time to be an advocate for the environment and to be enforcing laws within our state. The best part of our organization is that we are well rounded in the area of Litter Control and Prevention. We have representatives from all over the state in all areas of Litter Control and Prevention. We are seeing so many groups and individuals stepping up to the plate and fighting to better our communities and state. You should all be proud of the efforts that you put forward to make a difference in our state. We are seeing great relationships created between Law Enforcement and local organizations. It is great to see this bond created and the members of this organization are a big part of that. We need to work hard to get new members signed up with our organization. For the small fee of $10 they can become a part of a group dedicated to making a difference.
I recently downloaded two grant opportunities available through PalmettoPride for possible consideration with our organization. Neither seemed a good fit for our group, but we are looking at some other ones coming available in the near future. If you know of any in your area that you feel the organization could apply for, please let us know. I would also like to thank to PalmettoPride for all their support and hard work. As always, Sherryl and the other staff are an incredible help when it comes to getting the word out and organizing events.Well, I must go, I will check back in with everyone next week and hopefully have some updates on the conference and our organization. God Bless. “Fish”
!!UPDATE FOR WEEK!!
Just got some updated news from Ryan in the Central Region. It seems they will be holding a Central Regional meeting on the 25th. Please try and come out to the event if you can. Invite someone you feel may be interested in joining the Association and let them see what we are about.
