By Alison Glass
Independent-Mail
February 1, 2004

Five schools and one arts council in the Anderson area will start anti-litter projects with grant money they got this week.

The Challenge for the Environment grant program of PalmettoPride promotes anti-litter awareness and enforcement programs as well as litter pickup. Statewide, 30 schools will split more than $60,000 this year. A luncheon in Columbia Thursday honored the grant winners.

The $1,200 awarded to Whitehall Elementary in Anderson will build a South Carolina fence garden around the flagpole on the front lawn of the campus, said Angie Bruhjell, science specialist.

Members of the Anderson Garden Club and some Clemson University students will help members of the Whitehall after-school science club plan and establish the garden, Ms. Bruhjell said.
"Involving the students is what makes it all worthwhile," she said.

Wal-Mart has given Whitehall $1,000 to match the Challenge for the Environment money, she said. Officials plan to use part of the Wal-Mart money to purchase a windmill palm tree for the school.

The grant money for the Blue Ridge Arts Council will pay for beautifying the grounds of the organization’s Seneca office, said Diane Sloan, education director. Juniors and seniors at Oconee Christian Academy will do the work, she said.

Other kinds of projects supported by grant money elsewhere in the state include environmental education programs and the purchase of trash receptacles for schools, according to a PalmettoPride news release.

PalmettoPride is an umbrella organization that unifies anti-litter efforts by individual South Carolina residents, law enforcement and other state agencies, the private sector, media, community organizations and Keep South Carolina Beautiful.

Alison Glass can be reached
at (864) 260-1275 or by e-mail at
glassag@IndependentMail.com.

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