About Keep McAllen Beautiful

Keep McAllen Beautiful (KMB) was founded in January 1976. It originally was meant to function as a Beautification Advisory Board as established by the McAllen City Commission at that time. Its goals were to increase public awareness through litter prevention projects such as the “Auntie Litter” campaign.

A volunteer would show up at public events and programs as Auntie Litter promoting litter prevention and encouraging all to keep McAllen clean and beautiful. Hence the McAllen Beautification Committee and Keep McAllen Beautiful co-existed with each other for the next 15 years. In the fall of 1976, KMB became an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, a national public education organization dedicated to improving waste handling practices throughout America.


In 1983, KMB became an affiliate of Keep Texas Beautiful, a nonprofit public service organization working with support from the state’s governor to provide a cleaner and more beautiful state. In the spring of 1991, KMB officially became a 501(c) (3) non-profit corporation. Consequently, it was decided that KMB and the McAllen Beautification Committee would merge to become one educational, nonprofit organization.

Since then KMB has expanded through a variety of activities and annual events that address litter prevention and promote beautification issues. Among those are: monthly beautification awards given to businesses who exceed minimum landscape ordinance requirements; Paint McAllen Beautiful, a project where volunteers paint the homes of low income McAllen residents who are elderly and/or disabled at no charge; the Great American Cleanup, our largest annual city wide cleanup that brings together schools, civic groups and businesses to help pick up litter along roadways and in public areas; and Project Clean Neighborhoods, a project that empowers residents in a given neighborhood to clean up their property or neighborhoods and dispose of any debris or litter free of charge with roll-off dumpsters provided free of charge by the City’s Public Works Department.

Along with these regular events, KMB is also involved in a number of other events and activities such as helping coordinate tree plantings in and around McAllen with the help of the Parks and Recreation Department and the establishing of butterfly gardens in neighborhoods and public areas.


As an official McAllen advisory board with City and Board appointed members, KMB has enjoyed an ongoing fruitful and positive relationship with the City of McAllen for over 30 years. In every endeavor, KMB strives to promote and enhance awareness while adhering to its mission: to develop and expand the awareness of proper waste reduction practices, litter prevention and the beautification and environmental preservation of McAllen’s natural beauty.

Board & Staff

EXECUTIVE BOARD

PRESIDENT

Normalynda Zepeda

VICE PRESIDENT

Mike McClure

SECRETARY

Tom Brownmiller

TREASURER

Ernesto Sepulveda

BOARD MEMBERS

Art Lopez

Belinda Leal

Chelsea Howell

Juli Rankin

Jackie Palacios

Janna Wiley

Linda Calderon

Marie Perez

Mary Gonzalez

Mia Renee Diaz

Oscar Palacios
Rojelio Aleman

Carmen Pacheco

Thelma Scoggins

Veronica Perez

 ASSOCIATE BOARD MEMBERS

Gloria F. Doyle

Patty Lopez
Carlos Lopez

KMB PROGRAM MANAGER

Chris Lash

SENIOR ADMIN CLERK

Claudia Gutierrez

PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR

Elvira Alonzo

ADMINISTRATIVE CLERK

David Salas

RENEWABLE RESOURCE MANAGER

Robert Trevino

RECYCLING EDUCATION COORDINATOR

Abril Paz

ASSISTANT CITY ATTORNEY

Austin Stevenson

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