TDOT recently recognized 17 winners of the Keep Tennessee Beautiful Awards of Excellence Grant Competition, presenting a total of $54,000 in grants to environmental leaders across the state. Keep Chester County Beautiful was honored with two awards, a TDOT County Litter Grant Program Award and a Public Education Award, for a total of $8,000 in funding. Executive Director Amber Greene was on hand to receive the awards.
The winners were announced during the TDOT/KTnB Biennial Conference, held in Chattanooga Sept. 27-28 and celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Keep Tennessee Beautiful. KTnB Executive Director Missy Marshall hosted the conference with the theme “Honoring the Past, Celebrating the Progress, and Building the Future. Michael McClanahan, TDOT Transportation Manager of the Highway Beautification Office, was on hand to help present the awards.
Grants were presented in six main categories: Public Education, Public Participation, Leadership, TDOT County Litter Grant Programs, Keep America Beautiful TN Affiliate Award, Keep Tennessee Beautiful State Level Affiliate Award and four distinguished leadership awards.
“This was a milestone year for Keep Tennessee Beautiful, as we celebrated 40 years of serving Tennessee and helping educate and inspire our citizens daily to improve and beautify their communities,” Marshall said. “We are grateful to TDOT for their generous participation in KTnB’s Awards of Excellence Grant Competition. These environmental leaders work tirelessly to help keep our state clean with litter cleanup and education and prevention initiatives statewide. They truly are making a difference.”
Further, the conference spotlighted the accomplishments of the past two years, celebrating the success of TDOT’s “Nobody Trashes Tennessee” initiative and KTnB’s award-winning “Trashercise” campaign, both aggressive statewide litter prevention programs.
Visit Keep Tennessee Beautiful for the full list of grant recipients.
