{"id":51913,"date":"2025-07-09T17:11:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T17:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/51913\/"},"modified":"2025-07-09T17:11:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T17:11:08","slug":"texas-ffa-cleans-fort-worth-parks-during-2025-convention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/51913\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas FFA Cleans Fort Worth Parks During 2025 Convention"},"content":{"rendered":"

By the time the Fourth of July fireworks lit up the sky, Fort Worth had already seen another kind of spark \u2014 this one ignited by thousands of high school students in blue corduroy jackets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

From June 30 to July 4, the city played host to the 97th annual Texas FFA State Convention. With more than 13,000 attendees, it\u2019s one of the largest youth-led events in the country. But the students didn\u2019t just show up to shake hands, swap pins, and collect awards. They came ready to work. \u00a0<\/p>\n

True to their motto \u2014\u00a0\u201cLearning to do. Doing to learn. Earning to live. Living to serve.\u201d\u00a0\u2014 hundreds of FFA members fanned out across the city before the convention officially kicked off, partnering with the city\u2019s\u00a0Keep Fort Worth Beautiful (KFWB)<\/a>\u00a0initiative to tackle a cleanup effort that spanned eight public parks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a true believer in offering FFA members the opportunity to serve,\u201d Liz Treptow, FFA coordinator and longtime ag science teacher, said. \u201cThis gives members and teachers the chance to live out the FFA motto by giving back to the Fort Worth community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

They did just that. In the span of two days \u2014 June 30 and July 1 \u2014 348 FFA members collected 168 bags of trash, hauling off 3,360 pounds of litter and debris, according to the City’s website<\/a>.\u00a0That\u2019s more than a ton and a half of garbage cleared from parks and green spaces before most of the convention attendees had even arrived downtown.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since 2021, Texas FFA and KFWB have teamed up during the state convention in Fort Worth, turning the city itself into a classroom on leadership and environmental stewardship. This year, the city\u2019s Environmental Services Department showed up in force. Staff from Keep Fort Worth Beautiful distributed supplies, cooling towels, and cold water at each cleanup site, then followed behind to handle the proper disposal of everything collected.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI am incredibly proud of these young volunteers for taking the initiative to help clean up our community while enjoying their state convention in Fort Worth,\u201d said Cody Whittenburg, Environmental Services director \u2014 and an FFA alum himself. \u201cThese efforts set a powerful example of leadership, service, and environmental stewardship.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

That kind of example matters. As Fort Worth continues to grow, efforts to curb litter, promote sustainability, and keep public spaces accessible for all have never been more vital. KFWB\u2019s mission \u2014 to educate and engage residents and businesses in protecting their environment \u2014 stretches across all ages and abilities. From year-round cleanups like\u00a0Adopt-A-Spot\u00a0and the\u00a0Neighborhood Litter Stomp\u00a0to initiatives like\u00a0Green Business Partners\u00a0and\u00a0School Green Teams, the program is as much about community building as it is about beautification.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Texas FFA members didn\u2019t just help clean Fort Worth. They helped show what\u2019s possible when a new generation gets serious about service \u2014 one bag of trash at a time.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By the time the Fourth of July fireworks lit up the sky, Fort Worth had already seen another…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":51914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,38851,7371,7372,9730,12632,358,7453,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,27355],"class_list":{"0":"post-51913","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-clean-up","10":"tag-fort-worth","11":"tag-fortworth","12":"tag-fwtx-staff","13":"tag-organization","14":"tag-texas","15":"tag-top-story","16":"tag-tx","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa","23":"tag-volunteering"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}