What have we been up to lately?

Keep Hot Springs Beautiful closed out its 2023 event calendar with a bang.

Pod Squad volunteers along Jennings added new fall blooming plants to their pods. Volunteers from First Interstate Bank helped KHSB volunteers spread landscape fabric and mulch in the new pods at Big Bats so they could be ready for replanting in the Spring. City crews helped place decorative boulders and petrified wood in released pods at Big Bats and University Avenue. With the installation of the new stoplight at University Avenue and Chicago Street, two of the three pods at the intersection were released enabling their pod adopters to amend the soil, plant perennials and mulch their pods.

The KHSB Annual Banquet-Meeting was held at the American Legion on Friday November 3rd. Despite loosing part of the crowd to the semi-finals varsity football game (Go Bison!) a crowd of both members and the general public enjoyed a great meal catered by the American Legion Auxiliary while learning more about our successes and challenges in 2023. Appreciation awards were presented to Clark Brown and Doug Mangold for the superstar volunteer efforts in 2023. Before the conclusion of the meeting, all members in attendance voted on the proposed slate of officers for 2024. Shelley Hagans-Brown and Caitlyn Mosset stayed on in their positions as President and Secretary. Christine Fraser replaced Cherie Largent as Treasurer as she is relocating to North Carolina to be closer to her son and granddaughter. She will be missed!

Saturday November 4th, over a dozen volunteers showed up to help hang Christmas lights in Centennial Park. While this was a smaller crowd than we usually get for this event, fun was had by all as hot cocoa and cookies were shared while Christmas music was playing throughout the park. Additional lights and supplies were purchased this year, enabling KHSB to decorate more trees than normal. Lights will remain on dusk-dawn over the next two months.