Tuesday, November 25, 1997
Executive director leaving for WTRC position
By ANTHONY WILSON Staff Writer
Donna Albus is leaving Abilene Clean and Proud for greener
pastures.
The executive director of the city's successful recycling and
beautification program submitted her resignation last week to
join the West Texas Rehabilitation Center as its community outreach
coordinator. She'll be responsible for fund raising in area towns.
Albus will leave City Hall at year's end, a move that's already
churning emotions in her and her many supporters.
"This has been more than a job to me," Albus said.
"It's been my life. It's kind of like my baby, but even babies
have to be weaned. I've had guilt trips the program will die without
me. But I haven't done my job if that's the truth. I hope the
community believes we've got to take care of the environment."
The Abilene Clean and Proud board is already mourning its loss.
"Donna defined and epitomized Abilene Clean and Proud,"
board president Kay Spiva said. "It'll be a tough job to
fill her shoes - and her hats. I have no clue who that will be.
She has been the program."
Albus, Clean and Proud's sole employee, joined the non-profit
agency as a part-time coordinator in 1992. Having succeeded a
string of five directors in the program's first six years, Albus
expected to stay on board one year.
But she quickly found her new job was also a calling.
Fueled by seemingly endless energy, she successfully lobbied
volunteers, local businesses, school children and city government
to donate their time, money and service for a cleaner community.
In the past year, Clean and Proud benefited from the equivalent
of $680,000 in volunteer hours, cash and in-kind services.
"There's been an immense amount of cooperation, and she's
the common link," Spiva said.
Albus, usually sporting one of her trademark colorful costumes
and matching hats, was also perpetually in the media spotlight
preaching her passion. Earlier this year, she brought Abilene
worldwide attention with the now-infamous crape myrtle flap.
"You might call me compulsive and addicted," she
confessed. "If I have a passion, I do seem to go a little
overboard.
"If my name is connected to something, I want it to be
the best. We've got to take care of this earth. If I could do
something to wake someone up, it was my job, my duty and my gift."
Aside from a higher awareness of environmentalism and greater
participation in recycling and beautification efforts, Clean and
Proud's greatest achievement under Albus was twice winning the
Governor's Community Achievement Award.
With the $225,000 prize money, the city is landscaping highway
rights-of-way inside its boundaries.
Albus impressed Rehab Center president Jim Pethis as he served
on the Abilene Clean and Proud board this past year. After asking
her about prospects for the center's new job opening, he began
to wonder if she might be interested.
"I was struck by her creativity and energy," Pethis
said. "I suspect she's passionate about everything she does.
We'll have plenty of opportunities for her to be passionate."
Albus was flattered by the pursuit.
"I need a fresh outlook and new challenges," she
said. "I believe in the Rehab and its mission."
She said her only regret regarding Clean and Proud was her
failure to convince the city's administration to invest more resources
- money and people - toward the program.
Though Clean and Proud is a non-profit agency, City Hall pays
the director's salary. Its work is funded through grants and donations.
City Manager Roy McDaniel plans to study the job to decide
if there's a "better way to do it," though he said it's
not his intent to eliminate the post.
Albus vowed to remain involved with Clean and Proud and Keep
Texas Beautiful, a state organization on whose board she serves.
"You can't get rid of those deep-seated passions,"
she added. "I was an environmentalist before being an environmentalist
was cool."
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Copyright ©1997,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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