Organization Keeps Mercedes Beautiful & Green
Keep Mercedes Beautiful crews can often be seen along FM 491 in doing their work of diligence and duty to improve their community.
It’s an all-volunteer effort. There is no paid staff, just residents pitching in, working together to make Mercedes a better place to live, work, and play. Employees from local businesses such as the Starbucks on Expressway 83, or students from area schools will join forces with the trusty core of KMB volunteers, picking up a wide array of trash along 491, be it tires, paper, cans, or plastic products.
As important as that work is, there is much more to what KMB does other than rid highways of litter. One of the organization’s pride-and-joy projects is the work it does at the Mercedes Community Garden at the H-E-B Park. Keep Mercedes Beautiful works with city government on the upkeep of the garden in recruiting volunteers of all ages to develop their green thumbs to make their community green.
“One of our main goals is sustainability,’’ said Janet Schofield, a KMB committee board member. “We’re trying to bring back the native plants. You need the native plants to attract the birds and bees. Having more native plans in your community adds multiple things and is key to helping the environment and climate issues.’’
Making Improvements
Keep Mercedes Beautiful has strived in recent years to make improvements as defined by its parent organization – Keep Texas Beautiful.
In 2023, KMB earned a silver level designation from Keep Texas Beautiful, a noteworthy accomplishment in that the local organization worked to overcome previous shortcomings as cited by the statewide organization. These days, KMB is active and flourishing and getting out in its community. The organization works closely with city government in sprucing up local parks, partnering on the community garden, and alerting city inspectors to litter problems its volunteers see around the community.
One focal point for KMB, Schofield said, are the retention ponds that were created by recent improvements with the construction of drainage infrastructure. The ponds are gathering spots for water produced by heavy rains and ideal places to plant native trees and plants. One example Schofield cited is KMB planting seedlings of Montezuma cypress trees in the retention ponds, which is ideal for a tree requiring more water than most area vegetation.
“I believe we’ve improved quite a bit in recent years,’’ said Schofield, a retired educator, about KMB’s efforts throughout the community. “We need more grants and funding to grow. It would help us to do more education in the community and provide information that can be helpful in our city.’’
Making A Difference
Helping your community look better with less litter and more plants to go green are worthy goals in any city.
Individually, getting outdoors and being active brings its own benefits. Schofield calls it “nursing the soul in getting out in nature and the outdoors.’’ Local youngsters can feel those benefits when they join their elders at the community garden to run a rake through the leaves that have fallen from nearby trees, or working side-by-side with adults to plant the native plants Schofield highlights.
It’s that spirit of more people doing their part, pitching in, improving Mercedes one little bit-at-a-time that KMB seeks to promote.
“I’m optimistic,’’ Schofield said. “We can make a difference in our little piece of the world.’’
- Ric Cavazos