CABOT — For Dorothy Putt, keeping the city of Cabot clean is a symbol of community pride, and she has been a loyal volunteer for more than 30 years to help keep the city beautiful.
Putt is part of Cabot City Beautiful, the volunteer organization dedicated to cleaning up the city. She said the organization’s annual cleanup effort in the fall has preceded CabotFest since the festival’s inception in order to give visitors a good impression of the city.
“It shows we have pride in our city,” she said. “Everyone pitches in and gets work done before CabotFest, which is just a good activity for visitors and vendors, and then our citizens.”
Putt said she remembers that the focus on cleaning up the city started a couple years after a tornado came through and destroyed much of the town.
“People were excited about Cabot coming back from the tornado in 1976,” she said. “Through the years, people filter in and out, but we always get the work done.”
Now Putt helps with registration at the event. She said she sees a lot of return volunteers from Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops, church groups and businesses, and is always happy to see new faces at the event.
“Litter is a problem in the Cabot area,” Cabot City Beautiful event coordinator Matt Webber said in an email. “It is illegal to litter. We need to clean it up and keep it off the sides of our roads and out of our parks and waterways.”
Cabot Clean-Up for Fall 2014 is scheduled for 9 a.m. to noon Oct. 4. The event is a co-sponsored litter-pickup endeavor by the city of Cabot and Cabot City Beautiful. The cleanup is held in conjunction with the annual statewide
Keep Arkansas Beautiful Great Arkansas Cleanup Campaign.
The primary areas of concern for the fall cleanup event are the main thoroughfares into Cabot.
“A great first impression is very important. We hope to facilitate the opportunity for our citizens to develop a sense of ‘Cabot Pride,’ while at the same time welcoming guests and visitors to our community,” Pat Watkins, Cabot City Beautiful president, said in a press release. “We always try to spruce up around here just before all the visitors come into town for CabotFest.”
For those interested in volunteering with the Cabot Clean-Up event, check in will be at 9 a.m. at the Cabot Public Schools Administrative Building, 602 N. Lincoln St. Check-in will include the coordination of pickup routes and passing out orange safety vests and trash bags. Volunteers are asked to bring their own work gloves and wear good walking shoes. At noon, volunteers will meet back at the parking lot for free food and drinks.
For more information, call Cabot City Beautiful Event coordinator Matt Webber at (501) 920-2122 or email cabotbeautiful@yahoo.com.
Staff writer Angela Spencer can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or aspencer@arkansasonline.com.