Bath County Rescue Squad earns PRIDE award
December 8, 2014 by clackey
Members of the Bath County Rescue Squad accepted the PRIDE Volunteer of the Month Award for their ongoing roadside cleanup efforts. Standing, left to right: Frances Pergrem (Solid Waste Coordinator), James May, Carlos Pergrem, Bryan Wilson, James Caudill, Lisa Caudill, Stephanie Stewart and Rhoda Grass. Kneeling in the front are Bryan Donahue, Ann Hall and Tyson Patton.
The Bath County Rescue Squad has won southern and eastern Kentucky’s PRIDE Volunteer of the Month Award.
The Rescue Squad — which is an all-volunteer, nonprofit organization — earned the honor for its dedication to picking up roadside litter across the county.
“The Rescue Squad always comes into my office and asks if there are any roads that I need cleaned,” said Frances Pergrem, Bath County Solid Waste Coordinator. She nominated the group for the PRIDE award.
“They will let me know if they see a road that needs cleaned,” she said. “This is just one of the little things they perform in our county.”
“We want to give a special thanks to this extraordinary team,” said PRIDE’s Becky Calhoun, who presented the award to members of the Rescue Squad at Judge-Executive Lowell Jamison’s office on Dec. 4.
“Frances can count on the Rescue Squad to pick up litter anywhere, any time, and she knows the job will be well done,” Calhoun said. “By being such devoted volunteers, the Rescue Squad members are making a difference in this county’s beautiful environment.”
“The Rescue Squad serves Bath County in countless ways, and we are grateful they include cleanups in their long list of community projects,” Calhoun added.
Bath County uses its state litter abatement funds to reward nonprofit organizations, such as the Rescue Squad, for cleaning up roadsides.
“So far this year, the Rescue Squad and Junior Rescue Squad together have earned a total of $1,800 through the litter abatement program,” Pergrem said. “That’s a big help to an all-volunteer group. They do other fundraisers, too, so they can help our county.”
“We’re always looking for more nonprofits to pick up litter and earn money for doing this service,” Pergrem added. “This money is there to clean the roads. Our nonprofits do a great job picking up litter, and the money helps them out. We have cheerleaders, sports teams, churches and others that participate.”
Pergrem asks groups to write letters about their experience volunteering through the litter abatement program. In an August 2014 letter on behalf of the Rescue Squad, Chief Mark Coyle and Assistant Chief James May wrote: “This is just another way we can help out. We are able to show our pride for our town by making it cleaner.”
A letter from the Junior Rescue Squad stated: “The program is a way for us to learn responsibility and to be able to show our pride to the people that travel through our county.
To learn more about the litter abatement program for nonprofit organizations, call Pergrem at 606-674-6627
The PRIDE Volunteer of the Month program recognizes hard work and dedication to the PRIDE initiative, which promotes environmental education and cleanup efforts across 42 counties. With corporate sponsorship from TECO Coal, WYMT-TV airs commercials about each PRIDE Volunteer of the Month.
Congressman Hal Rogers co-founded PRIDE in 1997 with the late General James E. Bickford, who was the Kentucky Secretary of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection.
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