PRIDE awards $30,000 for environmental ed clubs
January 26, 2015 by clackey
With $200 from PRIDE … plus 400 pounds of bottle caps … North Laurel Middle School will recycle plastic into a bench for the school. NLMS students have run school-wide and community recycling programs for years. This year, they will see the end result of their collection efforts when their bottle caps are recycled into a bench by Greentree Plastics in Evansville, Indiana.
Student groups that explore nature and serve their communities have received a boost from Eastern Kentucky PRIDE, Inc., the nonprofit organization that promotes environmental cleanup and education in southern and eastern Kentucky.
PRIDE announced today that it had awarded $30,277 to PRIDE Clubs across the 42-county region. The PRIDE Club Environmental Education Contracts are worth up to $750 each. They were awarded through a competitive application process. (For a list of contract recipients, scroll down.)
PRIDE Clubs are student groups dedicated to environmental education. Club members learn about nature through fun, hands-on activities. They also serve their communities by volunteering for local cleanup events and performing their own project to improve the local environment.
For the remainder of the school year, PRIDE Clubs will use their contracts for a variety of activities that show students the importance of a clean environment, personal responsibility and community pride. For example, many PRIDE Clubs will spend their contracts on supplies for recycling programs, gardens and Earth Day events.
“Teachers and students have great ideas for learning and serving projects, and the PRIDE Club contracts will make it easier to put those ideas into action,” said PRIDE’s Tammie Wilson.
“Over the 18 years that PRIDE has been promoting environmental education, we have seen the power that students have to change their communities,” Wilson said. “PRIDE Clubs help students discover and use that power.”
PRIDE was founded in 1997 by Congressman Hal Rogers and Kentucky Natural Resources Secretary James E. Bickford to promote “Personal Responsibility In a Desirable Environment” in southern and eastern Kentucky.
Since 1997, PRIDE has made 1,376 funding awards for environmental education projects, impacting 706,805 students across the region. The funds have been used for a wide variety of stewardship activities, from operating PRIDE Clubs to building greenhouses.
The 2015 PRIDE Club Environmental Education Contracts are the third round of contracts made possible by a $175,000 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission to Eastern Kentucky PRIDE, Inc. Eastern Kentucky PRIDE, Inc., agrees and warrants that 66 percent of the program will be financed by federal funding with the remaining 34 percent financed by state and local resources. Total project cost is $266,501, of which $175,000 will be funded by the ARC.
2015 PRIDE CLUB ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION CONTRACT RECIPIENTS, BY COUNTY
Adair County
Adair County Elementary School — $750
Lindsey Wilson College — $650
Bell County
Frakes School Center — $750
Breathitt County
MKCAP Head Start— $750
LBJ Elementary — $750
Breathitt County High School — $750
Carter County
West Carter Middle — $720
Clay County
Manchester Elementary — $750
KCEOC Head Start — $750
Cumberland County
Cumberland County Conservation District/Cumberland County Middle School — $750
Johnson County
Paintsville High School — $750
Harlan County
KCEOC Head Start — $750
Knox County
KCEOC Head Start — $750
Flat Lick Elementary — $750
Knox Central High School — $750
Barbourville High School — $750
Laurel County
East Bernstadt Independent — $750
North Laurel Middle — $250
Lee County
MKCAP Head Start — $750
Beattyville Elementary — $750
Southside Elementary — $750
Lee County Middle — $750
Lee County High School — $750
Letcher County
Cowan Elementary School — $700
Letcher County Middle — $750
Whitesburg Middle School — $750
Letcher County Central High School — $750
Magoffin County
Magoffin County Cooperative Extension Office/Magoffin County High School — $750
Monroe County
Tompkinsville Elementary — $750
Gamaliel Elementary — $750
Owsley County
Owsley County Elementary School — $750
Owsley County High School — $750
Pike County
Millard Elementary — $750
Southside Elementary — $750
Pulaski County
Somerset Christian — $750
Somerset Community College — $750
Pulaski County Public Library — $732
Rowan County
Morehead State University — $730
Whitley County
Whitley County East — $450
Whitley Central Intermediate School — $545
Wolfe County
Wolfe County Middle — $750
MKCAP Head Start — $750
