Venice Area Beautification, Inc. (VABI)

Venice Area Beautification, Inc. (VABI) strives to make Venice a more beautiful place to live, work, and play through its numerous projects and volunteer groups. Some of its projects include downtown flower baskets, flowerpots, and decorative landscaping; the Venetian Waterway Park, a 10-mile recreational trail along the Intracoastal Waterway; Monty Andrews Arboretum at West Blalock Park; murals; and public art displays. Most recently, VABI’s Venice Urban Forest project site is located at the old CSX railroad right of way, between the Venetian Waterway Trail and the Seaboard Industrial Park in Venice, from the Venice Avenue Bridge to the Circus Bridge. The Venice Urban Forest is a critical component, enhancing the City of Venice’s urban design that was introduced by John Nolen in 1926.

From landscaping projects and flower baskets to park clean up and removal of invasive plants, volunteers are critical to VABI’s work. VABI maintains three volunteer groups:
• Venice in Bloom – concentrating on planting, trimming, weeding, fertilizing, and watering the flowers and plants in the downtown area.
• Team Keep Venice Beautiful (KVB) – meet weekly to trim, weed, de-litter, and remove invasive plants from Venice parks, trails, and green spaces.
• Venice Urban Forest – focusing on planting, weeding, mulching, and watering plants and trees in the new Venice Urban Forest project.

Visit vabi.org or veniceurbanforest.com to see how your generous contribution can make a difference. VABI is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.