people
A PASSION FOR conservation Story and Photos by Julia Collins
Gina Hawkins gazes at a waterfall in astonishment. It’s her senior year of high school, and she’s on a camping trip at Blackwater Falls in West Virginia. The beauty of the nature surrounding her is overwhelming. All she can think is, “I have to conserve this.” And for many decades, she’s done just that. Hawkins, 60, fights to protect the planet every day. Since her senior year of high school, she’s graduated with a bachelor's degree in environmental studies from the University of Maryland, worked in preserving the environment in multiple states and is now the executive director of Keep Alachua County Beautiful. Nestled in a small complex off of Southwest Fourth avenue, the Keep Alachua County Beautiful headquarters is modest but homey. The staff and volunteers there act like family, and they are all united by their passion for preservation. People of all ages flock to this nonprofit to greatly impact the community. Hawkins is the leader of them all. With her easy smile, welcoming attitude and open heart, she’s the type of person you would gladly chat within a long line on a hot day. It’s clear she cares just as much about others as she does the environment. “A lot of folks look at beauty as something purely aesthetic,” Hawkins said. “When we improve a community…it removes blight. Blight will steal your joy.” Hawkins also said that the quality of the environment greatly impacts your health, and “your health is probably the number one thing, that, if it were gone, you would be very unhappy.”
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According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, many studies have found direct links to a clean natural environment with people’s mental and physical health.
Another intern that is just as passionate as Currin at Keep Alachua County Beautiful, Philip Thomas, had a different experience growing up with sustainability.
The Great American Cleanup is, according to its website, the “nation's largest community improvement program.” Ingram also mentioned he went to school with Hawkins’ son.
Some of the projects Keep Alachua County Beautiful work on are litter prevention and cleanup, cigarette litter prevention, graffiti abatement and Adopt-A-Road. But the nonprofit will take as many new ideas, volunteers or interns as possible.
For Thomas, 20, care for the environment has been a lifelong interest, and he even worked his way up to an Eagle Scout. Thomas described how his college experience has been about “marrying” his strengths and interests and how he feels fulfilled in doing that at Keep Alachua County Beautiful.
Growing up, Ingram said he would frequent a nearby creek, where he would see plastic bags floating along the river.
“You’re allowed to find your own place in this nonprofit,” Casey Currin, 20, said. Currin is a business management intern at Keep Alachua County Beautiful and just started interning there this semester. As a biology major with a minor in business at UF, Currin’s life focus shifted in a mirrored way to Hawkins’ when she was close to his age. Hawkins originally intended to pursue physical therapy or something in the health field before that transformative moment surrounded by the West Virginian nature. Currin also originally intended to go into the medical field, but now he has found more of a passion in sustainability. One of the nonprofit’s new big projects Currin is helping out with is called “SWAG,” which stands for Southwest Advocacy Group. SWAG volunteers travel to Alachua County schools and educate students on the importance of environmental awareness as an after-school program. “We teach students about environmental awareness through fun activities and in meaningful ways that hopefully they’ll start to incorporate environmental thoughts into their daily lives,” Currin said.
One thing that’s evident is that there’s no one right path to follow. Whether it be efforts in sustainability and preserving the environment, finding your passion or otherwise, there is no one correct way to do it. The key thread that joins all the volunteers, interns and staff at Keep Alachua County Beautiful, though, is staying positive despite negativity. “For me, the big thing with staying personally positive is having seen the personal impact on the environment,” Andrew Ingram said. Ingram, 27, is one of the full-time staff members at Keep Alachua County Beautiful. His role at the nonprofit is the volunteer and program coordinator, which involves connecting volunteers to different projects and staying organized with all the locations and projects they have going on. Ingram, with an incredibly deep voice, gentle mannerisms and a reddish beard, shared that, as a lifelong Gainesville resident, he’s been able to experience firsthand the positive effects beautification projects have. He went to school here and graduated from Santa Fe College. Ingram said he came to be at Keep Alachua County Beautiful because he and his dad were involved with a similar organization: The Great American Cleanup.
When talking about the plastic straw and bag bans in Gainesville, he described how those two legislations were a reminder of the real impact groups like Keep Alachua County Beautiful can have on the community. The plastic straw ban went into effect on Jan. 2, 2020, and the plastic bag ban is still under debate as of February 2020. Currin, Hawkins, Thomas and Ingram are all in different stages of life, but they all come together through their relentless expedition in environmental preservation. They all share a fairly positive attitude surrounding the future of sustainability, despite some negative attitudes haters may have. The big event Keep Alachua County Beautiful works toward all year is Gainesville’s version of the Great American Cleanup. This past April 4 marked the 29th anniversary. If you want to learn more about Keep Alachua County Beautiful or get involved, you can visit their website at kacb.org. You can also check out their social media on Instagram @keepacbeautiful Twitter @ALitterFreeAC Facebook https://www.facebook.com/keepalachuacountybeautiful.
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