By BRITTONY LUND
The Lufkin Daily News

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Tony Moline used to be the guy who left his popcorn bag and soda in his seat when he left the movie theater. Now the thought of that makes him cringe.

Angelina Beautiful/Clean this year celebrates 25 years of making Angelina County a beautiful place to live. Moline, now its executive director, got involved with the program three years ago.

Brittony Lund/The Lufkin Daily News

Angelina Beautiful/Clean Program Manager Amanda Anderson and Executive Director Tony Moline stand in front of the Lufkin/Angelina County Chamber of Commerce next to one of many awards the organization has earned. Angelina Beautiful/Clean celebrates 25 years in October of this year.

"It's changed my life," Moline said. "Now I'm the guy running down the street trying to get the little piece of paper that fell out of my pocket."

Angelina Beautiful/Clean officially became a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization in October 1984. It began as a committee for the Lufkin/Angelina County Chamber of Commerce to help make Lufkin beautiful. But soon the Chamber and community saw a need for the committee to become bigger.

"Because of the Chamber and people who wanted to beautify Angelina County, Angelina Beautiful/Clean was born," Moline said.

The organization is part of Keep Texas Beautiful and Keep America Beautiful. It has six affiliates for the different communities in the county and puts on numerous programs and gives out awards each year. Some of these include a monthly beautification award, a clean-up at least once a month, Eco Camp and an Arbor Day celebration, in which they plant a tree at a Lufkin school and give out 1,500 free hardwood trees.

In addition, every student in Angelina County has some sort of project or program in which to participate. This includes a forest awareness tour at the Texas Forest Service for sixth graders, pass the bag program for high schoolers and coloring books about litter prevention for first-graders.

The organization does clean-campus checks and awards the Clean Campus Award to one elementary school, one middle school and one high school every year. They've won numerous national and state awards, including 10 times winning the Keep America Beautiful National first-place award.

They also put on the only illegal dumping law-training class in East Texas. Each year the head of the Texas illegal dumping research center teaches law enforcement officers and health district employees how and when to give tickets for illegal dumping.

"Litter is just as much a health issue as a nuisance issue," Moline said.

Lufkin residents have the option of donating $1 each time they pay their water bill. For every $1 given to AB/C they promise to return $23 to the community through volunteer work and projects.

Currently AB/C receives between $1,700 and $2,300 each month from water bill donations. There are approximately 15,000 residents who could pay $1 each month on their bill.

"If everyone donated $1, think of what we could do with that money," Moline said. "It's about people taking pride in it and saying, 'I'm going to do it.'"

Donating $1 a month is as easy as giving up one Diet Coke a month or not super sizing a McDonald's meal a couple times a month, Moline said. The money goes toward keeping medians clean and planted, flowers blooming and trees pruned.

All the work AB/C does also helps the local economy by bringing in new businesses. When a new business is thinking of locating in Lufkin they will first visit the area to look around.

"If it's ugly or not aesthetically pleasing they're going to look other places," Moline said. "This is going to help bring people to Angelina County."

To celebrate 25 years of service AB/C will hold Angelina Beautiful/Clean Day at the Ellen Trout Zoo during the Amazing Turtle Race in October. There will be special programs at the zoo along with fun games, food and prizes.

In addition they will plant 25 trees in each community in the county during the winter and will put out a Real Men Recycle calendar, which will feature local celebrities showing that real men do recycle. They will also have a bulb sale in October.

"I want to say that we could not do with without the board," Moline said.

"They're workers, not a bunch of talkers. They get out with everyone and pick up trash. They have a real passion for it. We also couldn't do it without our wonderful volunteers and people buying into it. When people see the value of a clean and green community it makes Angelina County a fun place to live, work and play."

Describing AB/C in just one word, Moline said he had the perfect word in mind.

"I think 'green,'" Moline said. "It makes you think of recycling, beautification, planting and turning off the light instead of leaving it on."

Amanda Anderson, program manager for AB/C, said she became interested in working for the organization when she volunteered with them in September last year.

She immediately knew she wanted to work for them.

"It's easy to sell to people who want a clean, green community and I wanted to be a part of that," Anderson said.

Anderson said she loves teaching the kids about litter prevention and seeing the difference it makes in their lives. She also loves getting to call local businesses and tell them they've just won an award.

Moline joined for political reasons at first. He'd just graduated from Stephen F. Austin State University and heard about the organization while interning at Sen. Todd Staples' office. But he said it didn't take long for him to become passionate about the organization.

"You see its history and what people give," Moline said. "It's something tangible at the end of the day. You can see the difference you have made. It made me fall in love with Angelina Beautiful/Clean."

For information on how to get involved, volunteer or donate money call AB/C at 936-632-5326.