Feb. 28—A Smyrna woman won a national award for her volunteer work with Keep Smyrna Beautiful.

Liz Davis, a Keep Smyrna Beautiful board member, won the 2022 Keep America Beautiful Lady Bird Johnson Award.

Each year, the award recognizes one outstanding volunteer who must have at least 10 years of service in helping their local community become cleaner, greener and more beautiful, according to the city of Smyrna.

The award is named after "Lady Bird" Johnson, the former first lady, who engaged Americans in recognizing that aesthetic beauty is directly related to a better quality of life.

"I'm not usually at a loss for words," Davis said. "But I was completely speechless when I was informed of this prestigious award."

Davis has been on Keep Smyrna Beautiful's board of directors for almost 20 years, and recently stepped down as board chair after 10 years of service in the role.

In addition to her work with the local affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, Davis was a founding member of Williams Park Neighbors, served on the parks commission and was named Smyrna Citizen of the Year in 2011.

"For the past 17 years, Liz Davis has worked tirelessly to fulfill the mission of Keep Smyrna Beautiful. She is an active and service-minded volunteer, who can be found doing everything from coordinating our largest fundraiser to volunteering at document shredding events," said Julie Barwig, Keep Smyrna Beautiful's executive director who nominated Davis for the award. "As a way of life, she models for KAB affiliates the way to be an effective servant-leader."

Davis accepted the award on February 22 at the Keep America Beautiful Conference in Washington, D.C.

"You know it really doesn't belong to me. It belongs to all the volunteers I've worked with so closely throughout the years," Davis said. "Those are the people who made this happen."

At the conference, Keep Smyrna Beautiful also accepted the Innovation Award for last year's Smyrna Art & Garden Tour, which it put on in partnership with the Smyrna Arts Council. Keep Smyrna Beautiful was one of only nine out of more than 700 Keep America Beautiful affiliates recognized with this award.