A framed antique white glove is presented to the winner for that quarter. All manner and type of businesses and organizations are eligible.
The Trousdale School is the most recent recipient of the White Glove Award.
“The White Glove Award is presented to an organization that has gone above and beyond,” said Lisa Pickel, director of existing industry at the Cleveland/Bradley of Commerce and also a member of the KAB’s Business and Industry Committee. “It is given to an organization that exemplifies excellence in its commitment to the environment.”
“It was a surprise. A nice surprise,” said Shannon Clark, executive director and CPA at Trousdale. Everyone at the school was just trying to find a way to take part in the community cleanup efforts.
The students and staff received the award for the outstanding recycling work done right after the April 27 storms and tornadoes.
“We just joined the recycling program last April,” Clark said. During the days after the big storm last year, lots of items were piling up in the community. The people at the school decided to collect recycling, like water bottles, paper, and cardboard, that was rapidly filling up containers. “When the tornadoes came, we went to a lot of locations — The Caring Place, Peerless Road, Dalton Pike, Park View Elementary. We were driving around to several spots. That was our beginning into the recycling program.”
Items came in fast and furious and were placed across the school gym floor because the school was so new to the program. A year ago, however, the Trousdale School still hadn’t received any recycling bins. But it did have lots of hands to help with the large amount of sorting necessary. Now the school has recycling bins and even a recycling manager, Graham Cash.
In just an average month’s time, in the past year, the Trousdale School students and staff have recycled:
— 19 pounds of PET plastics;
— 344 pounds of cardboard;
— 881 pounds of mixed paper, and
— 186 pounds of aluminum.
This amounts to 1,430 pounds of recyclables
“This is just an average of what they do in one month,” said Joanne Maskew, executive director of the local Keep America Beautiful organization. “Say that times 12 months, it could equal about 17,160 pounds from going into the landfill. Wow! What a difference these students are making.”
At the moment, Clark said, the school is hoping to add toner cartridges to their list of recyclables.
Some of the previous White Glove Awards have gone to organizations such as Eaton Hydraulics, Cleveland State Community College, Cormetech, the local Coca-Cola plant, and Cleveland High School’s Environmental Club.
Other KAB programs include a Littering Hotline at 559-3307 if residents want to report littering; Adopt-A-Spots for quarterly cleanups; quarterly cleanups; and educational programs available throughout the year.
KAB also recently assisted with volunteers in the recent Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day at the Tri-State Exhibition Center. Sponsors for this event included KAB, Santek Waste Services Inc., Cleveland Utilities, and Bradley County.
For more information about KAB and the programs they have to offer, call Maskew at 559-3307 or email her at: jmaskew@cityofclevelandtn.com.
