GATESVILLE, Texas — People in the Central Texas community are making a difference right in our neighborhoods.
“We have done education, especially for kids, and environmental things like recycling and composting,” said Marie Dominguez with Keep Gatesville Beautiful.
Keep Gatesville Beautiful strives to obtain the beauty of the community.
"I just felt like there was a real need to get out, push your sleeves up, pick up litter and make our community look better,” said Shelly Herring with Keep Gatesville Beautiful.
The group hosts city wide cleaning days, plants gardens, and nominates a yard of the month.
“We were shocked — not expecting it,” said John and Kalinda Westbrook.
This month’s winners, the Westbrooks, say they’ve worked long and hard on their yard.
"We took some original planting, re-purposed those, and then had some landscapers come in,” John said.
The couple says several of their plants are native for easy maintenance and sustainability — some of them even being deer resistant plants because of the frequent visits in the neighborhood.
"He hand-waters almost everything when he can — we have a rain catch system and he’ll dip his buckets and come out and pour or he’ll use the hose," Kalinda said.
"We don’t have a sprinkler system so we’re saving water with that."
The Westbrooks say they’re glad to see their hard work is being noticed in the community.
"To see all of the neighbors drive by and wave and yell that they love our yard… it makes us smile,” they said.
Keep Gatesville Beautiful tells 25 News they’re still looking for more volunteers.
For anyone who would like to participate, more information can be found on their Facebook here, or their or website here.
