WEST Region

Elementary School

Tompkinsville Elementary-Rookie of the Year-Monroe County
420 Elementary School Rd.
Tompkinsville, KY 42167
270/487-6472
Contact:  Dana Hemmer

Tompkinsville Elementary is Rookie of the Year for the western region for taking the initiate to start a district wide recycling program and partner with the city’s recycling program.  A few of the students meet with the superintendent to give ideas of things they wanted to see done in their school.  The student’s spoke out and voiced that they wanted all schools to start recycling program.  The PRIDE Club took it a step further and wrote persuasive letters to the Tompkinsville City Council to request the city to bring the recycling tailor back for public use and partner with the school system.  The PRIDE Club members attended a city council meeting and one of the student’s letters was read during the meeting.  The city council stepped to the plate and agreed to provide small recycling containers for the class rooms in all five schools in exchange for the school’s recyclable materials.

Mt. Vernon Elementary-All Star-Rockcastle County
530 Williams and School St.
PO Box 1530
Mt. Vernon, KY 40456
606/256-2953
Contact:  Julie Asher

Mt. Vernon Elementary School in Rockcastle County has an outdoor classroom shelter, greenhouse, native plant and butterfly gardens.  The PRIDE Club Green Team oversees the school wide recycling program of aluminum cans, paper and plastic.  Compost is made from food scraps from the cafeteria, leaves gathered from the garden and pencil shavings that are collected from the classrooms.  The compost from 4 bins is added to the native plant gardens and is used in the greenhouse.  The PRIDE club educates the entire school through school wide morning green announcements and school wide Earth Day activities. They have adopted the City Park and Williams St and conduct cleanup activities during the PRIDE spring and fall cleanup campaigns.  In their greenhouse, the students have learned to collect seeds and propagate and grow their own plants.  The Green Team and the UNITE Club partner together to plant red tulip bulbs for “Plant the Promise” in conjunction with Red Ribbon week to promote drug free lives.

Middle School

Campbellsville Middle School-All Star-Taylor County
315 Roberts Rd.
Campbellsville, KY 42718
270/465-5121
Contact:  Sharon Harris or Principal Chris Kidwell

Campbellsville Middle School in Taylor County has an outdoor classroom along with a nature trail leading to the creek where water testing is performed. The students maintain the trail. The outdoor classroom shelter is complete with worktable, water and electricity.  The PRIDE Club participated in 2 cleanup activities.

Russell County Middle School-Champions of the Earth-Russell County
2258 S. Hwy 127
Russell Springs, KY 42642
270/866-2224
Contact:  Jean Clement

Russell County Middle School has been active with PRIDE almost since PRIDE’s inception.  They have an outdoor classroom shelter, a nature trail, an observation deck, bird and butterfly habitat, and a booming recycling project.  The PRIDE Club is charged with maintaining the school-wide recycling program, and have been instrumental in establishing a district-wide recycling program as well.  They have an Enviroscape watershed model, and have been very active in the NEED (National Energy Education Development) Project.  They are active in their community by participating in the Wolf Creek National Fish Hatchery Earth Day Event where they collect pledges for the Change-A-Light, Change the World campaign.  Last year they partnered with the Russell County Conservation District to host a Russell County Recycles Day where they pasted out information on county recycling and gave out recycling bins to Russell County residents.

High School

Somerset High School-Champions of the Earth-Pulaski County
301 College Street
Somerset, KY 42501
606/678-4721
Contact:  Cindy Ham

Somerset High School is nestled in downtown Somerset.  Even though their space us limited, they have an outdoor area with bird habitat, native trees and plants and they are very involved in community activities.  The high school students have worked to make district wide recycling a reality.  The E-TEAM, (Energy, Environmental, Education Team), oversees the recycling program at the high school as well as at the district Board of Education Office. During the 2009 and 2010 PRIDE Spring Cleanup, they participated in the HWY 27 Clean Sweep by cleaning the downtown city streets.  They work with South Kentucky RECC and Kentucky NEED to educate their peers and community members about energy conservation.    Every spring, they participate in the Earth Day Event at Somerset Community College by handing out CFL bulbs and collecting pledges.   The E-Team mentors to younger students through Project Wild and Project Wet Activities during the month of April.  They trained teachers of the younger grades in using KY Dept. of Fish & Wildlife’s Aquatic Wild cards to take back to use with their students.  They also volunteered and assisted in the Children’s Garden at the Pulaski County Library by planting native plants and setting up the fossil pit in the garden.

Adair County High School-All Star-Adair County
526 Indian Dr.
Columbia, KY 42728
270/384-2751
Contact: Sheila Willis

ACHS & CWC started the Indian-PRIDE Arboretum in 1999.  It started from a barren stretch of field owned by the BOE and has become one of the districts most valued classrooms.  The Arbouretum has walking paths, an outdoor classroom shelter, a wetland and native plant life.  The high school students host fall and spring events for the elementary school students.  The pumpkin patch event is held in the fall and the Earth

Day event is held in the spring.  Older students mentor to the younger students through environmental education activities such as: identifying birds, environmental education stories, litterbug art, and a seed ball to teach seed germination and plant growth.

West Region Environmental Educator of the Year: Debbie Bradshaw-Adair County

Ms. Bradshaw is a teacher at Colonel William Casey Elementary School in Columbia, Kentucky. Debbie has been active in the Pride program for 10 years and has implemented the following programs in her school; Garden Friends, Environment Packs, and Recycling programs. Also she has promoted the Pride program with activities such as pumpkin patch activities, Arbor Day celebration, Earth Day celebration, and weekly garden friends meetings. She has been involved in KEA, SBDM, and environment grant writing.

Central Region

Elementary School:

Cold Hill Elementary School-Green Star Award-Laurel County
4012 West Laurel Rd.
London, KY 40741
606/862-4632
Contact:  Principal Vicki Jones or Kristi Morgan

Cold Hill Elementary in Laurel County has an outdoor classroom along with a nature trail with bird houses and feeders.  The students maintain a vegetable garden in the spring that is shared with the community.  The school wide recycling program has grown into a community wide recycling program.  Community members can drop off their recycled materials at the school.  The City of London provides many of the containers and picks up the materials.  The school receives funds for every ton they recycle.  The money is put back into the recycling program.  Along with PRIDE funds, the PTO has also given funds to create a science lab that is used by all students.  The science lab has many benefits such as:  providing hands-on activities and experiments; reinforcing core content and promoting environmental awareness with lessons on pollution, life cycles, erosion, water cycles and many more topics. Earth Day was celebrated with the help of London Wal-Mart and the Wal-Mart Distribution Center who donated supplies and materials.  Employees volunteered their time to help the student’s plant trees and flowers around the campus.

Manchester Elementary-Champions of the Earth-Clay County
1908 N. HWY 421
Manchester, KY 40962
606/598-3444
Contact:  Joyce Ohler or Sally Sizemore

Manchester Elementary in Clay County has added a tracking station, a new rain garden and additional animal habitats and another greenhouse.  They have an active PRIDE Club that is broken down into 5 committees that oversee different areas of the campus.  The tracking station committe and poster committee check the tracking station weekly and journals the tracks that are found. The poster committee will then research the different types of wild animals in KY and make posters about the animals.  The bird, squirrel and wildlife committee check the bluebird activity weekly and keep all the feeders filled.  The garbage committee conducts biweekly campus cleanup activities.  The recycling committee collects and sorts the recycling items once a week.  The banner committee put up spring cleanup banners and posters around the city and campus to promote the 2009 PRIDE Spring Cleanup.   They also maintain a greenhouse, vegetable garden and conduct wetland studies.  They participate in campus and roadside cleanup activities. They also recycle aluminum cans, old cell phones, and ink cartridges.  They have community members come in as guest speakers and they conduct community service projects.  Last school year, the students along with the Principal’s help, collect surpy from the trees and did a one day cook off and made home-made maple spury.  This was a great hands-on learning experiences for the students to witness the entire process from start to finish.

Middle School:

Whitley County Middle-Rookie of the Year-Whitley County
351 Blvd of Champions
Williamsburg, KY 40769
606/549-7050
Contact:  Principal Richard Prewitt

Whitley County Middle School has created an outdoor classroom along with a 2 mile nature trail lined with Blue Bird houses.  They also worked with Wal-Mart in Williamsburg to created bird habitat on Wal-Mart property.  Bird cams were inserted in the blue bird houses so Wal-Mart shoppers could view the nesting activity of the blue birds from inside the store.

Corbin Middle School-Champions of the Earth Award-Whitley County
706 S. KY Avenue
Corbin, KY 40701
606/523-3619
Contact:  Melissa Evans

Corbin Middle School in Whitley County is still styrofoam free from their Styrofoam Busters Project in 2008 to encourage the school district to change all styrofoam trays to reusable plastic trays and silverware. They also have a greenhouse, an outdoor classroom, a recycling program, and a wetland area and adopted a city park.  They have created and maintained bird and bat habitats on campus and in the park (adjacent to campus).  The PRIDE Club mentors elementary students with environmental lessons and a puppet show.  They participated in Project Clean Streams and area PRIDE Clean-up Events.  They developed and recorded Public Service Announcements that were played on a local radio station for PRIDE’s Laurel Lake Cleanup.

North Laurel Middle School-Champions of the Earth-Laurel County
101 Johnson Rd.
London, KY 40741
Phone-606/862-4715
Contacts:  Mike Bowling or Shannon Ball

North Laurel Middle School, located in Laurel County, has an outdoor classroom that has grown to over 15 learning stations which include:  fossil pit, wetland, composting, animal tracks, Laurel County watershed and greenhouse.  The greenhouse is used for plant research as well as tilapia research. Students raise, chart and care for Kentucky’s new farm fish, Tilapia.  They regularly weigh and measure the fish, track the water quality, temperature and filtering system. The classroom research lab and river tank is used to further study fish and aquatic life.  The students have prepared environmental lessons for a mentoring program for the elementary school students. Students continue to monitor local streams through Project Clean Streams. The school has a school wide recycling program.  Students have created public service announcements to air on local radio stations.  Their Rolling Road Block Cleanup will take place this spring for its 3^rd year.  PRIDE Club members will also participate in the Laurel Lake and Woods Creek Lake cleanups this spring. Their latest addition is a community garden.

High School:

Corbin High School-All Star of the Year-Whitley County
1901 Snyder St.
Corbin, KY 40701
606/528-3902
Contact-Ann Hail

The environmental education program at Corbin High School is truly a school wide club effort.  A school wide recycling program was started during the 2009-2010 school year.  The PRIDE Club, UNITE and YSC members are responsible for collecting the recycling items.  The FCCLA, Beta Club and National Honor Society assist with picking up around the outdoor amphitheater as part of their yearly community service hours.  The campus has a nature trail with plant id’s, native plant gardens and animal habitat.

Lee County High-Rookie of the Year Award-Lee County
599 Lee Ave.
Beattyville, KY 41311
606/464-5005
Contact:  Leslie Cable

With their 1^st PRIDE grant they started a school wide recycling program and constructed an outdoor pergola between the high school and middle school buildings.    They also hosted a school wide Enviro Expo for the entire school.  The 330 students rotated through 16 stations focusing on environmental topics such as rain barrels, energy conservation, soil conservation and wildlife and forestry.

Central Region Environmental Educator of the Year:  Lynn Stivers-Knox County

Lynn Stivers is the PRIDE Club sponsor at St. Camillus Academy in Knox County since 2002.  Under Ms. Stivers leadership, the PRIDE Club has completed many projects such as:  painted garbage cans to place around campus for trash and recycling, added bird and animal habitat to the campus, constructed a nature trail through wooded area, school wide recycling program and adopting Master St and keeping it clean.  Ms. Stivers brings her club members to PRIDE community cleanups such as the Cumberland Falls Cleanup and Corbin Bypass Cleanup.  Ms. Stivers promotes PRIDE in her teaching and living and encourages her students to make use of all the resources for a sustainable environment.

East Region:

Elementary School:

Runyon Elementary-Rookie of the Year-Pike County
24 Runyon Branch Rd.
Pinsonfork, KY 41555
606/353-7483
Contact:  Sherry Wright

Runyon Elementary school’s PRIDE Club has taken recycling to the next level by providing a community drop off center for recycled items.  Community members can drive up the building and leave their items in the building.  The Pike County Recycling Center picks up the materials.  For the past 4 years, Runyon Elementary has collected over 4,000 phone books for recycling.  They have won the Bell South Phone Book Recycling Contest and received $500 for each win.  They also have a wetland and outdoor classroom and plan to add a nature trail this year.

St. Francis of Assisi School-All Star of the Year-Pike County
147 Bryan St.
Pikeville, KY 41501
606/437-6117
Contact:  Principal Theresa Dawahare or Kathy Atkins

St. Francis School, located in Pike County, lies on the banks of the Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy River.  They have constructed a wetland and a greenhouse.  The banks are wooded and have not been maintained for many years.  This natural area has always been considered off limits to the students due to fear of snakes, poison ivy and accidents.  However, after attending the PRIDE workshops, the staff looks at the area with a new vision.  They decided to create a nature trail from the school down to the creek so the students could interact with nature and conduct water testing.   As they started to clear the area for a trail down to the river, they discovered an old illegal dump which had to be cleaned up before the trail could be completed. For the 2009 school year, the PRIDE Club is going to start a school wide recycling program.  The students have also cast animal tracks so they can be used to identify animal tracks on the trail.

Middle School

Herald Whitaker Middle -Magoffin County-Rookie of the Year
221 Hornet Dr.
Salyersville, KY 41465
606/349-5190
Contact:  Principal-Johnni Johnson or Michelle Holbrook

With their 1^st ever PRIDE grant, Herald Whitaker Middle School stated a school wide recycling program.  The Recycling Team of students is responsible fore bi-weekly collections.  They collect aluminum, cardboard, and paper.  Magoffin County Recycling has placed a trailer at the school.

High School

Shelby Valley High-Rookie of the Year-Pike County
125 Douglas Park
Pikeville, KY 41501
606/639-0033
Contact:  Cindy Johnson

With their 1^st PRIDE grant, they started a school wide recycling program.  The National Honor Society manages the recycling program by collecting the ideas from the classrooms.  The National Honor Society participates in the PRIDE Spring Cleanup every year.  For the 2010 Cleanup, 55 students collected 46 bags of trash, 9 tires and large household items on Robinson Creek Rd.

Letcher County Central High-Champions of the Earth-Letcher County
435 Cougar Drive
Whitesburg, KY 41858
606/633-2339
Contact:  Regina Donour

LCCH conducts extensive water quality studies in their community and the surrounding area.  Their campus is relatively new, but they have already constructed a 40 ft wetland and wildlife habitat improvement areas.  The Outdoor Education Class maintains the bird habitat areas. They have installed an 8 X 10 greenhouse complete with solar panels to operate the fan for the greenhouse and light in the tool shed. The solar panels have given the students an opportunity to witness alternative energy sources for real life use.  The students also use a wildlife camera to monitor the appearance of wildlife such as deer, turkey, raccoons and elk. The focus of this class is to create good environmental stewards for Kentucky’s future.

East Region Environmental Educator of Year, Hans Doderer, Paintsville High School
Paintsville High School
225 Second St.
Paintsville, KY 41240
606/789-2656
Contact:  Principal Chuck McClure

While at Paintsville High School, Hans has started a PRIDE Club and applied for PRIDE Environmental Education Grants for a greenhouse, outdoor classroom, rain garden and animal habitat.  Under Hans’ direction, the PRIDE Club has adopted Tiger Island where they conduct spring and fall cleanups and have installed bluebird and wild duck boxes.  The students also go to the island to conduct ecological studies.  Before Hans begin teaching at Paintsville High, he started the environmental education program at Magoffin County High School.