Honoring Our Past, Growing Our Future
By CJ Minor & Amanda Garner
Since the early 1990s, Greensboro Beautiful has led community-wide litter cleanups to help keep our city clean and vibrant. These efforts began with the Glad Bag-A-Thon—now known as the Great American Cleanup—in the spring, along with Big Sweep in the fall. In 1992, Greensboro Beautiful became an official affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, strengthening its impact and advancing its mission to prevent litter, improve waste management, and engage residents in creating a more beautiful place to live, work, and play.
Glad Bag-A-Thon Vintage Hat
In 2016, a third cleanup initiative, Winter Wipeout, was introduced to encourage residents to pick up litter during the colder months, when debris is more visible and accessible. Greensboro Beautiful also partners with local colleges and universities to support service initiatives, including Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service and volunteer days at North Carolina A&T State University, UNC Greensboro, and Bennett College.
Each year, community volunteers assist in conducting Greensboro Beautiful’s annual Litter Index, a requirement of Keep America Beautiful. The results of this assessment help guide cleanup efforts and strategic priorities throughout the year.
NeighborWoods Community Tree Planting
The NeighborWoods Community Tree Planting program is designed to offer Greensboro communities the opportunity to beautify their neighborhoods, parks, and public spaces, as well as restore some of Greensboro’s canopy cover, via tree and shrub plantings. The program blossomed from a partnership between Greensboro Beautiful, the City of Greensboro, and the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service in the early 2000’s, and officially began in 2004 in the Eastside Park neighborhood.
The program has since planted thousands of trees in over 20 neighborhoods and community spaces, including the Glenwood, Westerwood, Aycock, Fisher Park, Storrington, and Warnesville neighborhoods. Each year, residents, volunteers, and Greensboro Beautiful work together to select tree types, choose a date, plant and mulch the trees, and ensure they’re taken care of as time passes. Today, this program lives on as one of Greensboro Beautiful’s yearly projects, and hopefully, will continue for many more years to come.
NeighborWoods 2013
NeighborWoods 2022-2024
Garden Events
Greensboro Beautiful has been putting on annual events in collaboration with Greensboro Parks and Recreation for decades, with our most famous being Parisian Promenade (now World Promenade) and Art in the Arboretum. Parisian Promenade was first held on May 6th, 2001, and featured painters, musicians, cafes, and even jugglers with the aim of recreating the sights and sounds of Paris. In recent years, Parisian Promenade has transformed into World Promenade to better reflect the melting-pot diversity of Greensboro’s community. The event now features many different kinds of artisans, from painters and potters to jewelry makers and clothing designers, from dancers and musicians to international cuisine and beverages, all handcrafted locally. World Promenade was held on June 7th, 2026 and will be held again next year on the first Sunday in May in an attempt to beat the summer heat.
Art in the Arboretum first began on October 6th, 2002, and exhibited fine art and crafts in an outdoor market. It continues to be popular today, now featuring entertainment, live music, and activities for the whole family. Art in the Arboretum is held annually on the first Sunday in October.
Parisian Promenade
Art in the Arboretum today
Arbor Day
Greensboro Beautiful always takes care to celebrate Arbor Day, especially considering it’s an entire holiday dedicated to the planting, celebrating, and protecting of trees. On Arbor Day 2013, nearly 150 volunteers gathered in downtown Greensboro to plant 45 trees in honor of Greensboro Beautiful’s 45th anniversary. A dedication ceremony in Hamburger Square followed the plantings, and audience members listened and celebrated as a newly planted oak tree was also dedicated in the middle of Hamburger Square to Hamburger Square Post’s longtime editor, Betsy Seale.
For Arbor Day 2015, a community tree planting was held in Greensboro’s Warnersville neighborhood. 250 volunteers from the neighborhood, UNC Greensboro, A&T, Bennett College, High Point University, the City of Greensboro, and Greensboro Beautiful itself came out to plant 150 trees in honor of Warnersville’s 150th anniversary. This community planting was also part of Greensboro Beautiful’s NeighborWoods program, and aided the Warnersville community in restoring the trees that had been lost to city expansion and the installation of power lines over many years. Greensboro Beautiful continues to honor Arbor Day today through tree plantings, litter cleanups, and information campaigns.
2011 Gateway Gardens
In 1999, Greensboro Beautiful was approached by the City of Greensboro concerning a new public gardens project. Pam Allen, who had been chair of Greensboro Beautiful twice from 1989-1992 and 1994-1996 and was a longtime collaborator with GBI, was especially interested in the project and ultimately became integral to the planning, coordination, and implementation of Gateway Gardens. Without her, Gateway would not be what it is today.
From 2000-2002, a master plan was funded with the help of Greensboro Beautiful and created with consideration and input from the Southeast Greensboro community. In 2007, a groundbreaking event was held at the site of the new garden, and a public capital campaign began with the hopes of raising enough money from donors, sponsors, and individuals for Gateway Gardens to become a reality. $5.4 million was raised, and in 2011, phase I of the garden was opened to the public. A visitor center was later opened in 2014, and additional enhancements are planned for the coming years.