Baltimore County Students Join 'Clean Green 15 Challenge'
BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. (WJZ) -- It may not be nice to look at, but that didn't stop Baltimore County School students from going after it.
Nearly 5,000 of them -- as well as community volunteers -- joined the Clean Green 15 Challenge.
"When there's a lot of trash on the ground, it's not helpful to the Earth," Clean Green 15 member Kenleigh Rolf said. "We decided to join to help the Earth."
Chesapeake Terrace Elementary Schools is one of 17 Baltimore County Schools where students spent 15 minutes a day picking up litter in their neighborhoods.
It turns out nine of the schools also made some money -- in the form of grants -- for environmental projects for picking up the most litter.
"I'd have to check the totals, we're in the thousands, thousands of pounds for sure," Chesapeake Terrace Elementary School Principal Shandra Patrick said.
Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski is happy to see Baltimore County Public School students joining an initiative to help the Earth.
"It might be surprising to some people to learn that we have 200 miles of waterfront in Baltimore County, and more than 2,000 miles of streams and rivers," he said.
The streams and rivers throughout Baltimore County is where a lot of the trash collects -- and after rain -- it is washed down storm drains.
Thanks to Clean Green 15, more than 30,000 pounds of trash were picked up, giving everyone something to smile about.
The schools also earned $18,000 in environmental literacy grants and technology prizes.
