Time for a little PRIDE cleanup

April is PRIDE Spring Cleanup Month in 42 counties of southern and eastern Kentucky, including Clinton County, and this year local officials are pushing for a higher degree of litter collection and volunteer participation than in recent years.

The month-long cleanup campaign is your chance to demonstrate personal responsibility by volunteering to pick up litter along roadsides and local tourist attractions. When you join the team of Spring Cleanup volunteers, you will:

* Improve your community’s appearance.

* Have fun with friends and family while

working together in the great outdoors.

* Inspire others to dispose of trash properly.

* Prove you are proud to call this region home.

“‘No Place Like Home’ is our Spring Cleanup theme this year, and it’s time to give our hometown a spring cleaning,” said Tammie Wilson of PRIDE, the nonprofit organization that began the region’s tradition of an annual Spring Cleanup in 1998.

“PRIDE is all about appreciating the beauty of our region and taking personal responsibility for your corner of it,” Wilson said. “When you look at it that way, you realize that spring cleaning outside of your business or church is just as important as spring cleaning inside.”

PRIDE will provide trash bags and gloves to volunteers who want to pick up litter and dispose of it with their own trash. For assistance locally, call the Clinton County Judge’s Office at 387-5234.

Volunteers are encouraged to contact their local PRIDE Coordinator after they pick up litter and dispose of it with their trash. The coordinator will add the volunteer hours to the city or county’s Spring Cleanup tally. PRIDE will recognize the region’s cities and counties with the most Spring Cleanup volunteers.

The region-wide PRIDE Spring Cleanup is sponsored by Outdoor Venture Corporation, Walmart and the Kentucky Association of Highway Contractors, Inc.

An organizational meeting has been scheduled for next Tuesday, April 12 at 4 p.m. in the Clinton County Judge/Executive’s office conference room for any individual, group or organization interested in helping clean up litter alongside roadways, either during the PRIDE Cleanup in the month of April, or for anyone wishing to help clean the Dale Hollow Lake roads next Saturday.

Participating organizations are eligible to receive some funding for their groups through PRIDE funding, depending on the number of those taking part.

For more information on the meeting, the PRIDE Spring or Dale Hollow Road Cleanup, contact the Solid Waste Coordinator at 606-688-0404 or the county judge’s office at 387-5234.