A few weeks ago, someone asked me how Keep Wimberley Beautiful began, so I thought I would review its history for our newcomers. My memory is fading somewhat and we did not keep written records, but here goes.
Around 1992 or 1993, a small group of us were having coffee at Cypress Creek Cafe.
We were just visiting casually, discussing Wimberley and why we came here. At some point, we were looking out the cafe’s windows onto the square and we noticed that weeds were growing along the curbs and in the middle of the square’s bed. Litter was also quite noticeable. We looked at each other and said, “When is someone going to do something about all of this litter and these weeds?” Then we laughed and realized that Wimberley was not even a real, incorporated city. (Wimberley was incorporated in 2000.) We had no local government, no street sweepers, no equipment. If we wanted that work done, WE WERE THE ONES TO DO IT! So we did. After finishing our coffee, we went outside and started pulling up weeds and picking up trash. Then we decided we would come back the next morning, properly prepared with work clothes on and bags and gloves and rakes and hoes. etc. to do a more thorough job than what we had done before.
We did that for several weeks, maybe even a month or two, and then we learned about Keep Texas Beautiful, headquartered in Austin and the official state organization for doing just what we were proposing to do. After contacting them and learning more details about their organization and how we could become a part of it, we joined them.
We became an official 501 C 3 non-profit organization with elected officers, by-laws, a budget, etc.
We have grown, accomplished quite a bit, including the winning of three Keep Texas Beautiful awards for our efforts. Those awards, because they were generous monetary awards, enabled us to beautify three areas in fairly significant ways, including the beautiful rock wall on RRl12 in front of the Senior Citizens building. Later, Sharon Carter, one of our finest local artisans, painted the lovely mural that now enhances the wall even more.
Written by Martha Knies
