S.C. Department of Transportation Recognizes Outstanding Volunteer Efforts at 20th Anniversary Celebration & Adopt-A-Highway Awards Ceremony

COLUMBIA, SC – April 9, 2008 – The SCDOT will honor volunteer Adopt-A-Highway groups and coordinators from around the state, Thursday, April 10, at noon during its 20th annual Adopt-A-Highway Awards ceremony at Seawell’s in Columbia.

Statewide, there are over 2,000 groups with nearly 30,000 volunteers who pick up trash and litter from along 6,000 miles of state maintained roads.  There will be an award given to each County Group of the Year and seven district group winners also receive awards.  One group will be named the 2007 Outstanding Adopt-A-Highway Statewide Group of the Year.

Other awards to be given at the ceremony will be to the Most Supportive Media and to the Outstanding SCDOT Adopt-A-Highway Engineer and Outstanding Coordinator for 2007.

To commemorate the 20th Anniversary Celebration and to say thank you to the AAH volunteers SCDOT has partnered with the South Carolina Alliance To Fix Our Roads to offer two one time scholarships totaling $1500 at this year’s program. Two High School seniors who are accepted to attend College in SC this fall and have participated or whose family is involved with the Adopt-A-Highway Program wrote a 500 word essay entitled “The Benefits of the Adopt-A-Highway Program to South Carolina and the Environment.”  The essay scholars will be presented $500 & $1000 scholarship awards at the ceremony.