Hometown pride can come in many forms: a winning football team, a growing local business, a thriving arts or cultural scene, even a large event that galvanizes folks to give back or just enjoy each other’s company. Sadly, the simple aesthetic and environmental efforts that literally keep Texas beautiful don’t earn as much recognition.

Based on this, we were incredibly proud to learn that our own Keep Katy Beautiful (KKB) earned multiple awards at the annual “Keep Texas Beautiful” meeting in Austin last month. The crowning achievement was the KKB team and our community being named winners of the Governor’s Community Achievement Award, providing $180,000 for a landscaping project along a state right-of-way.

According to the Katy Times, “Communities are judged on community leadership and coordination, education, public awareness, litter prevention and cleanup, illegal dumping enforcement, beautification and property improvements and solid waste management.”

Beyond the Governor’s award, the KKB earned a Gold Star Affiliate, a second place award for its “Hunt for Festivitrees” event, a first-place youth individual award, and a first-place media award.

Seeing as how Dagley Insurance is in Katy, Texas, we may be a bit biased, but it’s hard not to glow with civic pride when you hear news like this that involves so many people throughout our community.

We stand and applaud the KKB team for all of their local efforts and also the Keep Texas Beautiful group for continuing to promote the importance of keeping our state’s natural beauty intact. Borrowing from the Katy Times article, a quote from KKB vice chairman Kay Callender sums up our sentiments exactly:

“It just shows the dedication from the volunteers and that the city supports us…We have citizens that tell us they’ve never seen Katy look more cared for, and it really is a nice place to live, work and play.”