Baltimore Co. Students Work To Clean Up Their Schools

BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. (WJZ) -- Fifteen minute sweep. Can you make your neighborhood school clean and green in a short amount of time? Schools and community groups across Baltimore County are taking on the challenge.

As Gigi Barnett reports, it could lead to the other kind of green.

Grab a trash bag, and in the next 15 minutes, pick up all of the litter you see. That's the task for thousands of Baltimore County students as the county launches its Clean Green 15 Challenge.

"It's a competition where the schools are going to benefit," said County Executive Kevin Kamenetz.

Here's how it works: schools and community groups pick a campus and give it a good sweep. A task force will judge the best job.

"Our objective is to try to keep putting service projects on the calendar," said Clean Green volunteer David Reuckert.

Reuckert's church picked up the challenge to do a bigger cleanup. The area they selected is close to his place of worship.

"It's in the community that we want to be part of, giving service," he said.

County leaders say this kind of effort sends a message to students to keep it green.

"It's so easy to pick up trash. And what we're trying to do is just send the right message, not only with school children, but the entire county, that we need to keep our landscape in better condition than when we found it," said Kamenetz.

All of the cleaning up could lead to some cold hard cash. Schools can win environmental grants based on the frequency and the creativity of their clean up projects. Grants range between $2,000 and $4,000.

The competition ends in June. To get your group in on the Clean Green Challenge, click here.

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