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County leaders gathered on Jan. 8 for the Alabama PALS Anti-Litter 2024 kick-off campaign meeting at the ALFA Building. 

Chambers County Commissioner Sam Bradford, who first initiated the program in Chambers County to help with roadside litter, organized the annual meeting, which hosted Alabama PALS Clean Campus Coordinator Jamie Mitchell. 

Mitchell introduced the new Alabama PALS poster contest theme: “From the hills to the shore, no more litter in 2024.” The statewide contest will run with two divisions: one for kindergarten to third grade and one for fourth to sixth grade.

The program will also hold a recycled art contest in grades seven through twelve. 

The county joined the litter poster contest at LaFayette-Lanier Elementary School several years ago and was sponsored by Media Specialist Ellen Emfinger. Students at LaFayette-Lanier that have now gone to Valley High School have continued to engage with the program through the Clean Campus project. 

As for the roadside litter project, schools, churches and other organizations can be assigned a stretch of county road to pick up litter for the program. In exchange, they receive a $250 check from the commission. The goal is to discourage littering and help get litter off the road. 

In 2022, the commission approved $6,000 in budgeting. During the meeting, Bradford announced that the county commission budgeted $8,000 to support the county’s Clean Campus and Adopt-A-Mile projects. 

It was also decided that April will be Spring Clean-Up Month during the meeting.

Last year, the county commission won the governor’s award for the Alabama PALS Governor’s Awards in November. Valley High School Ecology Club sponsored by Emfinger won first place and $1,000 for the 2023 Clean Campus Program statewide competition.