Keep Suffolk Beautiful is launching a new fall litter prevention campaign to help make the city a cleaner, greener place to live, work and play.

“It’s more of a challenge than a campaign,” said Kathy Russell, spokeswoman for Keep Suffolk Beautiful.

“We are calling it The Church Cleanup Challenge. Your church conducts a cleanup of a street, local park or public space and then sends a friendly challenge to a different church to do one, too. We hope it will be fun and rewarding. Churches are leaders in the community, so we thought they would make a strong partner for environmental stewardship in the fight against litter.”

Keep Suffolk Beautiful is contacting Suffolk churches, asking them to take up the challenge. Litter equipment is provided, such as grabbers, gloves, bags and safety vests. Bags and debris will be collected by Public Works.

The challenge also offers high school students the opportunity to get some public-service hours required for graduation, as well.

The Church Cleanup Challenge will be held Sept. 15 through Nov. 19.

Follow the challenge on the Keep Suffolk Beautiful Facebook page, and there will be printed updates in the Suffolk News-Herald. Keep Suffolk Beautiful will recognize churches taking part and give updates on the amount of litter removed from our community.

For more information, call 514-7604 or email littercontrol@suffolkva.us.