Keep Soddy-Daisy Beautiful

06/03/2026

Day 2 with Keep Soddy-Daisy Beautiful and Camp GENERATE partnering alongside the Audubon Society! These amazing young people from Mississippi have been hard at work creating trails, cleaning up areas, and helping make way for beautiful spaces for our community to enjoy.

The future is bright with young people like this! 🌿💚

06/03/2026

We were so excited to partner with CampGENERATE for a volunteer service project this week! These hardworking young men and women spent the day helping cut trails for the Audubon Society, and they absolutely jumped right in ready to work. It’s always amazing to see young people giving back to the community and making a difference while having fun along the way. We appreciate CampGENERATE partnering with Keep Soddy-Daisy Beautiful for this project! 🌿💚

04/30/2026

🏆 2026 CLEANUP CHALLENGE - THE RESULTS ARE IN!

11 teams hit the roads, trails, and waterways this spring to make our community cleaner. Here's what you accomplished together:

FINAL STANDINGS:

🥇 Green Steps - 116 bags, 13 tires, 35 large items
🥈 The Litter Loather - 31 bags, 10 tires, 18 large items
🥉 Heather - 22 bags, 12 tires, 6 large items
4️⃣ Girl Scout Gals - 28 bags, 1 tire, 3 large items
5️⃣ Loop Litter Eradicators - 18 bags, 14 tires, 1 large item
6️⃣ Lake Bottom Buddy - 9 bags, 23 tires, 8 large items
7️⃣ Gary Massey Injury Lawyers - 17 bags, 1 tire, 7 large items
8️⃣ The Frontier-to-Volunteer Cleanup Team - 8 bags, 1 large item
9️⃣ Soddy United Methodist Church - 8 bags
🔟 The Toxic Lung - 1 bag, 4 tires, 1 large item
11 True Choice Realty - 1 bag

🗑️ 259 bags of trash collected
🛞 78 tires pulled
🪑 80 large items removed

Every single bag makes a difference, and y'all made a LOT of difference.

OVERALL WINNER - GREEN STEPS 116 bags, 13 tires, and 35 large items across 3 massive outings. Green Steps came out swinging and never let up. Congratulations!

MOST DETERMINED - THE LITTER LOATHER went out 7 times, working completely solo every single outing. From Thrasher Pike to Mowbray Pike to Mountain Road, she covered ground all over the community - 31 bags, 10 tires, and 18 large items, all by herself. That is determination.

📸 PHOTO CONTEST WINNERS:

Most Bizarre Find - Lake Bottom Buddy pulled this gem out near the lake. An old TV perched on a stack of tires. You can't make this stuff up.

Most Photogenic - The Frontier-to-Volunteer Cleanup Team. This photo says it all - the next generation of community volunteers, safety vest and all, grinning ear to ear while getting it done.

Thank you to every team that came out this year. You made Hamilton County a cleaner, better place to live. We'll see you next spring!

Here are all the areas covered during the 2026 Cleanup Challenge:

Behind Food City at Lakesite
Beside Petco and behind Walmart, Hixson
Clift Eldridge near 1929
Dayton Pike - Soddy Daisy (beside and behind store)
Dayton Pike to Chestnutview Drive, water plant intake & under HWY 27 bridge
Depot St. dumpster area, Hickman St., Railroad area
Empty field behind gas station on Lee Highway
Hixson High School
Hot Water / Mowbray Pike split
Hot Water Rd (multiple outings)
Intersection of 153 and Lee Highway
Little Cedar Mountain
Loop Rd
Milsaps Cemetery Road, Hotwater Road, behind Food City, Mowbray Pike & Mountain Road
Mountain Road
Mowbray Pike (multiple outings)
Poe Rd near Miller Country
Poe Rd near Sims Rd
Rivermont Park - Dixie Boat Ramp
Soddy Daisy Fishing Pier
Soddy Lake - Ballfield side of HWY 27 & Fishing Pier pickup point
Soddy Lake bottom (Fishing Pier, Pine Tree Park, Island Lake bottom & shoreline)
Soddy United Methodist Church area & down by the ball fields
Southside Chatt
Thrasher Pike and Dayton Pike
Veteran's Park
Vine Street (under highway, behind Tractor Supply)
Woods on Lee Highway across from Subway

Hamilton County Mayor’s Office
City of Soddy-Daisy - Government
Keep Tennessee Beautiful
Keep America Beautiful

04/30/2026

04/25/2026

🗑️ CLEANUP CHALLENGE UPDATE - Days 4 through 7! (see: https://ksdb.cc/cc to learn more) 🗑️

Today is the LAST DAY of the challenge - and our teams have been going HARD this second half.

Here's what's been added since our last update:

🟢 119 more bags of trash collected 🟢 35 more tires hauled out 🟢 39 more large items removed

That brings our CHALLENGE TOTALS to:

🟢 244 bags of trash 🟢 68 tires 🟢 65 large items
..across 28 cleanup outings from 10 teams. And we're not done yet - you've got until midnight.

Time for shoutouts:

Team Girl Scout gals were out two days in a row. 19 scouts hit behind Food City at Lakesite on Day 4, pulling 16 bags and 2 large items. Then back at it the next day on Dayton Pike in Soddy-Daisy with 5 more bags and a tire. They also found a turtle. It was glass. They checked.

Team Lake Bottom Buddy (Pat) is doing something nobody else can (or dares to) - he's kayaking out on Soddy Lake and pulling tires and trash out (and occasionally jumping in to get said tires). Four outings in four days. 23 tires dragged out of the water, 9 bags of trash, plus fishing line, hooks, steel pipes, and a semi truck AC unit that's still submerged and marked with floats (working with the city on that one). When most people see a lake, they see water. Pat sees a cleanup that needs a kayak.

Team Gary Massey Injury Lawyers CLOSED THEIR OFFICE EARLY so the whole team could hit 153 and Lee Highway. Nine people, a whole truckload. 13 bags, a tire, and 5 large items across two outings. That's what local businesses stepping up looks like.

Team The Toxic Lung hit Clift Eldridge and pulled 4 tires and a large item out of the woods near 1929.

Team Green Steps came back TWICE more after their epic Day 3 haul. They brought 56 volunteers to Southside Chattanooga and filled up with 48 bags, 2 tires, and 5 large items - the Times Free Press even showed up to cover it. Then they hit Rivermont Park and the Dixie Boat Ramp and pulled another 18 bags, 4 tires, and 17 large items. This team alone has nearly half the bags in the entire challenge.

And a shoutout to Team True Choice Realty for getting out to Veteran's Park in Soddy-Daisy and grabbing a bag - every team and every bag counts.

There are still a some time left before midnight. If you've been meaning to get out there, NOW is the time. Grab a bag, hit a spot, and log it at https://ksdb.cc/cc

To every single person who put on gloves this week - thank you. Y'all are making this county cleaner one bag at a time. 💚

More to come though! We have some teams that haven't reported in yet!

Keep America Beautiful
Keep Tennessee Beautiful
City of Soddy-Daisy - Government
Hamilton County Mayor’s Office
Nobody Trashes Tennessee

04/25/2026

04/24/2026

04/22/2026

🗑️ CLEANUP CHALLENGE UPDATE - Days 1 through 3! (see: https://ksdb.cc/cc to learn more) 🗑️

Happy Earth Day! Y'all. Three days in and some of our teams have reported in, making a HUGE difference throughout the county!

Here's what 5 teams have accomplished since Sunday:

🟢 125 bags of trash collected
🟢 33 tires pulled out of ditches and woods
🟢 26 large items removed (couches, vehicle parts, you name it)

And we're just getting started.

Some shoutouts are in order:

Team Heather has been out EIGHT times since Sunday. Eight! She's been working Mowbray Pike, Poe Rd, and Hot Water Rd (Soddy-Daisy) - hauling out 47 bags, 12 tires, and 6 large items pretty much single-handedly. That's dedication right there.

Team Green Steps hit Little Cedar Mountain (Jasper) and came back with 50 bags, 7 tires, and 13 large items in a single outing - they filled a dump truck!

Team Loop Litter Eradicators tackled Loop Rd in Soddy-Daisy and pulled 14 tires in one trip. Fourteen! Plus 18 bags and a couch somebody thought the woods needed.

Team The Litter Loather cleaned up Thrasher Pike, Dayton Pike, and Mountain Road (Soddy-Daisy) - finding everything from vehicle parts to hazardous waste containers. Two outings, 6 bags, 4 large items, and a whole lot of stuff that had no business being out there.

Team Gary Massey Injury Lawyers have been squeezing in cleanups on their lunch breaks near Lee Highway (Chattanooga). Love seeing local businesses get involved!

The challenge runs until April 25. If your team has registered but hasn't gotten out yet (or you still need to register), now's the time! https://ksdb.cc/cc Log your cleanups and let's see how much we can get done before the 25th.

Thank you to every single person who's grabbed a bag and hit the road this week. 💚



Keep America Beautiful
Keep Tennessee Beautiful
Hamilton County Mayor’s Office
City of Soddy-Daisy - Government
Green Steps

04/21/2026

🐝🌼Show your bloomin' pride, Soddy-Daisy! 🌼🐝

After 2.5 years of community effort, our pollinator garden is a reality—and now you can support it with a Buzz Stop t-shirt 💛

Every purchase helps KSDB + Soddy-Daisy Blossoms keep the garden growing 🌱

👉 Grab yours: https://keepsoddydaisybeautiful.org/blossoms-tshirts

04/21/2026

We officially dedicated our pollinator garden—and revealed its new name, chosen by the community: The Buzz Stop.

A heartfelt thank you to Mayor Jim Coleman and Vice Mayor Mark Penney for joining us and unveiling the temporary signage. Your support sends a powerful message about what matters in our town—community, beautification, and stewardship of our environment.

But the real story behind The Buzz Stop is people. Dozens and dozens of volunteers came together to make this vision a reality—families, students, church groups, scouts, neighbors, and friends. People from all walks of life showed up, dug in, planted, donated, and believed in something simple but meaningful.

What stands there now is more than a garden. It’s a patchwork of native plants—and a reflection of the community that built it. A small corner of Soddy-Daisy made more beautiful, more welcoming, and more supportive of the pollinators that keep our world thriving. 🐝🦋

We’re incredibly proud of what we’ve created together. (And we’re just getting started.)