Corbin seventh grader wins PRIDE tshirt design competition

Mackenzie Walden, front and center, stands with her parents Skip and Leigh Walden and Fifth District U.S. Congressman Harold "Hal" Rogers during a special event at Corbin Middle School Monday. Walden won PRIDE’s annual t-shirt design contest.

A Corbin seventh grader is the winner of an annual contest to design the PRIDE Spring Cleanup t-shirt, which will be given to thousands of volunteers this year during organized cleanups throughout southeastern Kentucky.

Mackenzie Walden’s award-winning design was selected from among 1,612 contest entries submitted by students from 38 counties. Her t-shirt design featured the slogan "Saving Our World, One Cleanup at a Time."

Walden learned her entry was the top pick during a special assembly at the Corbin Middle School gymnasium Monday afternoon.

Fifth District U.S. Congressman Harold "Hal" Rogers (R-Somerset) attended the event and announced Walden as the winner. She was also named PRIDE’s Volunteer of the Month for February.

"It’s terrific. She did a great job," Rogers said of Walden’s winning design, following the event. "It is amazing to me how much interest this competition has generated in the schools. But that’s the whole idea of PRIDE. It’s grassroots. It’s all about the volunteers. PRIDE wants everyone to have an involvement in the project. It is successful only because of the thousands of people who want to pitch in and help."

Walden said the design took her "only a few minutes" to create, and said she was surprised her idea was the judges’ favorite.

"I enjoy art. I just love drawing things," Walden said. "I didn’t even know I was in the running for this at all. I didn’t think it was me. They did a good job keeping it a secret."

The PRIDE initiative – which stands for Personal Responsibility in a Desirable Environment – was launched in 1997 by Rogers and the late General James Bickford, the former Secretary of the Kentucky Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Cabinet. Their vision was to restore the natural beauty of their native region by encouraging citizens to take responsibility for protecting their environment and by providing the education and resources they need to do so.

The PRIDE initiative is coordinated by Eastern Kentucky PRIDE, Inc., a nonprofit organization. It links citizens with the resources of local, state, and federal agencies to improve the region’s water quality, clean up solid waste problems, and advance environmental education.

During PRIDE Spring Cleanup Month in April, communities will recruit volunteers to pick up litter. PRIDE will provide free T-shirts, trash bags and gloves for the volunteers, as well as funding for local governments to dispose of litter, remove dumps and offer free trash drop-off events. In 2011, there were 33,409 Spring Cleanup volunteers across the region, which was the largest turnout since PRIDE began in 1997.

Rogers praised Corbin Middle School as being one of the benchmark schools for participation in the PRIDE program. The schools PRIDE club led an effort in 2008 to eliminate the use of Styrofoam trays in the school’s cafeteria. The school won a PRIDE Campus of the Year Award in 2009 for the use of its greenhouse to grow and distribute plants in the community.

Corbin Middle School Principal Ramona Davis said the school has received grants from PRIDE to buy equipment for the greenhouse, fund the construction of an outdoor classroom and shelter area, and buy testing equipment to monitor water quality in Moore’s Branch, a creek that runs near the school.

"I want to thank you for those 15 years of dedication," Rogers told students. "This school is a big salvation, and you have been there ever since we have had the PRIDE program."

The 2012 Spring Cleanup kick-off event will be Saturday, March 24, at the Cumberland Falls State Resort Park. Volunteers will receive a free PRIDE T-shirt, lunch and chance at door prizes. Volunteer registration will begin at 9 a.m. at the gift shop, and the cleanup will start at 10 a.m.