Keep Moore County Beautiful held its annual Awards After Hours Dinner Tuesday, Oct. 20, at the Aberdeen Recreation Station in Aberdeen, to thank the numerous organizations and individuals for their environmental efforts toward improving the appearance of Moore County and their support toward recycling.

With the assistance of these volunteers, Keep Moore County Beautiful has been able to conduct and assist with many projects throughout the year to include cleaning the highways, cleaning lakes and rivers, keeping school grounds beautiful, recycling mixed paper and telephone books, recycling Christmas trees into mulch and maintaining beautifully landscaped businesses throughout the year.

Following dinner the guests enjoyed a presentation by guest speaker Jim Dodson, award-winning author, writer-in-residence at The Pilot and editor of PineStraw magazine, who spoke to the group about the benefits and importance of volunteerism.

"Keep Moore County Beautiful is grateful to everyone who volunteers their time to help fulfill its mission to make Moore County a beautiful place to live," says Joan Neal, executive director. "There are always those volunteers who go that extra mile. Awards were presented to these individuals who were recognized for their efforts."

A KMCB Beautification Committee tours Moore County each year and selects businesses and organizations worthy of receiving and displaying the Keep Moore County Beautiful Beautification Award.

The following businesses and organizations were selected as winners: Foxfire Garden Club, Foxfire Village; Aberdeen Elementary Communities in Schools First Garden, Aberdeen; Frye and Prickett Funeral Home, Carthage; Lake Resort Properties, Vass; Beacon Ridge, Seven Lakes; Southern Pines Women's Health Center, Southern Pines; Cameron Elementary School, Cameron; A Wild Hare, Southern Pines; National Golf Club, Pinehurst; FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital Conference Center, Pinehurst; Weymouth Center, Southern Pines; RBC Centura Bank (Old Town), Pinehurst; Re/Max Prime Properties, Pinehurst; BB&T Gardens (Old Town), Pinehurst; Coldwell Banker (Old Town), Pinehurst; Four Oaks Bank, Aberdeen; John G. Rudd CFP, Pinehurst; Jay's Food Mart, Aberdeen; Aberdeen Exterminating, Aberdeen; Bartlett Construction Co., West End; Etheridge Landscape and Design/Garden Center, West End; Highfalls Elementary School, High Falls; Belle Meade Retirement Community, Southern Pines; Fidelity Bank, Robbins; First Bank, Robbins.

In addition, Meares Heusess, operations manger of American Waste System, was selected to receive the Keep Moore County Beautiful Hometown Hero Award. Heusess and his company partnered with students at Pinecrest High School to support a recycling program in the school for two years.

Each year, Keep Moore County Beautiful recognizes an individual or group for exemplary volunteerism throughout the year. This year's Keep Moore County Beautiful Voit Gilmore Volunteer of the Year Award was presented to a group of students in the Pinecrest High School Student Environmental Association Club, represented by Lauren Delaunay, under the guidance of Karen Kaplan. These students partnered with American Waste Systems Inc. to pilot a school-wide recycling program.

The Keep Moore County Beautiful Media Award was given to Muirfield Broadcasting (Star 102.5 and WYBE Sandhills TV3) for supporting Keep Moore County Beautiful with its anti-litter and recycling campaigns in Moore County.

"Since the youth make up a large portion of KMCB volunteers, it was appropriate to recognize a few of these students with the Student Mentor Award," says Neal.

Winners in this category were: Moore County Girl Scout Ambassador Troop No. 985, headed by Kaye Sees; Pinecrest High School AP Environmental Science class, instructed by Karen Vinson; The O'Neal School SEAC Club, directed by David Graves; and Union Pines High School Occupational Course of Study students, directed by Sherri Clark.

The Bob Ewing Beautification Award was given to the Southern Pines Women's Health Center. Stefan Fasolak is responsible for the beautiful grounds at this location and is dedicated to maintaining the exceptional landscape at this facility.

Keep Moore County Beautiful, Inc. is a nonprofit organization, an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful Inc., and is celebrating 22 years in operation. Its mission is to improve the public's attitude and behavior in handling solid waste and conserving natural resources as well as involving individuals in beautification efforts. The purpose of KMCB is to reduce litter, encourage recycling and support beautification by using behavior modification to change public attitudes and habits.

Visit the Web site at www.keepmoorecountybeautiful.org.