Environmental Groups are Encouraged to Apply for Keep Maryland Beautiful Grants
March 31 deadline for applications
ANNAPOLIS, MD — To assist communities and nonprofit groups that promote a better understanding of environmental matters or help solve environmental problems, the Maryland Environmental Trust (MET) is sponsoring the Margaret Rosch Jones Award and the Bill James Environmental Grants.
The MET encourages environmental groups to apply for these grants, which are administered through the Keep Maryland Beautiful program. Keep Maryland Beautiful is funded by the State Highway Administration, a division of the Maryland Department of Transportation.
The Margaret Rosch Jones Award provides up to $2,000 to communities and nonprofit groups that plan to continue a project that has already successfully addressed an environmental issue.
The Jones Award is given in memory of Margaret Jones, the executive director and moving spirit of the Keep Maryland Beautiful program for many years. The MET wishes to remind citizens of her devotion, energy, and ingenuity by presenting an award in her name to a volunteer group that embodies the qualities that Margaret Jones brought to her work. An applicant must meet at least one of the following criteria:
- The group has actively educated people in the community about litter prevention, community beautification, or a local or statewide environmental issue; and
- The group has successfully eliminated or reduced the causes underlying a local environmental problem, not merely its symptoms.
Bill James Environmental Grants provide up to $1,000 to school groups, science and ecology clubs, and other nonprofit youth groups for proposed environmental-education projects. Bill James Environmental Grants are given in memory of William S. James, who drafted legislation that established the MET and that directed the MET to manage the activities of the Governor's Committee to Keep Maryland Beautiful.
Bill James Environmental Grants have the following objectives.
- to encourage a sense of stewardship and personal responsibility for the environment;
- to stimulate a better understanding of environmental issues;
- to aid in the elimination or reduction of a local environmental problem; and
- to promote education about growth management and protection of rural areas and sensitive resources while discouraging sprawling development
To obtain applications, telephone the MET at 877-514-7900, write the MET at 100 Community Place, 1st Floor, Crownsville, MD 21032-2023, or visit its website at www.dnr.state.md.us/met. Completed applications must be received by March 31.
Posted February 26, 2004