Spring Cleaning Your Country

The six weeks Punxsutawney Phil prescribed have past and Daylight Saving stole its usual hour -- spring is officially here. When you're tackling spring cleaning this year, consider neglecting your closet for a while (huge sacrifice, we know) and instead dive right in to the Great American Cleanup, which is in its sixth year.

Keep America Beautiful launched its annual volunteer-driven event last week in Waveland, Mississippi, where hundreds participated in hurricane restoration. People worked together to plant trees and flowers, clean playgrounds, and create a recreation center in a local park. The city, which was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, is freshly clean and green, helping "lift people's spirits and morale throughout our community," as Waveland's mayor, Tommy Longo, put it.

More than 86 million pounds of litter were collected during last year's cleanup, and Keep America Beautiful hopes to top that before the programs ends on May 31. If you think your community could use a sprucing-up, look into joining one of the 580 chapters and 17,000 participating communities around the country and be a part of the group that made "litterbug" a household word. 

--Jordana Fyne