PICKENS COUNTY — Pickens County Traveling Trash Bash The Pickens County Traveling Trash Bash (TTB), now in its eighteenth year, will soon travel to all fourteen Pickens County elementary schools. In February and March 2019, this environmental education event will reach approximately 1,200 third grade students and teachers.
This event is presented by the Pickens County Beautification and Environmental Advisory Committee, Pickens County Stormwater, Pickens County Solid Waste and Recycling, Pickens County Sherriff’s Office, and Clemson University Cooperative Extension, and community volunteers.
The Traveling Trash Bash teaches environmental concepts about recycling, composting, litter control, beautification, air quality, household hazardous chemicals, water conservation and stormwater-runoff pollution. The material correlates with third grade curriculum standards and is presented in a fun and interactive way with stations for each topic.
Educational materials are given to each child to take home, thereby extending the outreach of information to families and friends. Incentives are given to encourage each child and family to take one step toward a better environment. Class participation of 100% in the incentive program earns an ice cream party for that class.
The take-home packets include a TTB activity book and t-shirt, environmental education literature, seeds to plant, and other items to encourage conservation and protection of natural resources.
Funding is generously provided by the Pickens County Council and by grants through Palmetto Pride and Duke Energy. Volunteers who help with TTB include local citizens and parents. On average, the TTB crew spends 1,000 volunteer hours presenting the TTB in schools in addition to over 200 hours planning, preparing, and evaluating. Each student is evaluated using a pretest and a post-test to gauge how much information was gained after participation in the program. Every year, analysis of these test results has shown that the TTB does increase the knowledge and understanding about environmental issues for our Pickens County third grade students.
The Pickens County Traveling Trash Bash is a unique hour and a half long program with an important message and a broad reach. Each school’s special event ends with a recycling song and a visit from The Recycle Guys and Gilli the Stormwater Fish. The TTB travels around the county in a brightly decorated trailer with environmental education messages including “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”; “Don’t Litter”; and “Only Rain Down the Storm Drain.”
If you are interested in volunteering with the Traveling Trash Bash, please contact: Marge Moon, Pickens County Traveling Trash Bash Coordinator, at Marjoriemoon4@gmail.com or by calling 864-423-0210.
