PRIDE honors ACHS and Col. William Casey Elementary

The Garden Friends PRIDE Club earned the PRIDE Environmental Education Project of the Month award for August 2006. The club, which is a joint program by Adair County High School (ACHS) and Colonel William Casey (CWC) Elementary School, was honored for its vegetable garden. "Fewer children are growing up with gardens at home, so this project was an excellent way to excite kids about nature while keeping an important tradition alive,“ said Karen Deaton, who is the PRIDE education director and executive director of Riverwoods, the environmental education center that PRIDE is developing. “This vegetable garden is just the latest example of fun, hands-on projects by the Garden Friends,” Deaton continued. “With support from their school system and community, Ms. Bradshaw and Ms. Willis have built a very successful environmental education program at these schools. Our entire state will reap the rewards in the future when these students use their love and knowledge of nature to care for our environment.” This summer, the Garden Friends added a vegetable garden to the extensive outdoor classroom on the campus shared by ACHS and CWC. The project required building raised beds. Students planted, maintained and harvested produce throughout the summer. They used the produce to prepare smoothies, salsa and other nutritious foods. Twenty students in grades K-6 participated in the project. Teachers Debbie Bradshaw and Sheila Willis, who sponsor the Garden Friends PRIDE Club, oversaw the project. Guidance was provided by Arlinda Kessler of the University of Kentucky Extension Service’s Health and Nutrition Program. Community volunteers and local organizations helped make the project possible. Volunteers included Don Franklin, Daryl Bradshaw, Pat Smith and Reverend Payne, as well as the parents of Garden Friends members. Supporting organizations were the UK Extension Service, several local businesses and banks, and Adair County Schools, especially the maintenance department. PRIDE selects one Environmental Education Project of the Month from the current recipients of PRIDE Environmental Education Grants. The grant program awards up to $5,000 to schools and nonprofit organizations for projects that promote personal responsibility for the environment. Since 1999, ACHS and CWC have received $23,906 through the PRIDE Environmental Education Grant program. Primarily, the funds have been used to develop an arboretum and outdoor classroom on the campus shared by the schools. This school year, the schools will use its $2,685 grant to construct a wetland on the campus. In 2004, ACHS was named the PRIDE High School Campus of the Year for its outstanding environmental education program. Eastern Kentucky PRIDE — Personal Responsibility In a Desirable Environment — serves 38 counties in southern and eastern Kentucky. Congressman Hal Rogers (KY-5) and the late James Bickford, former Secretary of the state Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Cabinet, started PRIDE to provide government resources to local citizens as they work to clean up the region’s environment. PRIDE is funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.