Dear Editor,

The spring air is finally blowing through the mountains of Southern and Eastern Kentucky. It serves as a good reminder that April has been declared PRIDE Spring Cleanup month. I would like to personally invite you to be a PRIDE volunteer this year.

During the past 12 years, more than 260,000 people across our region have made PRIDE an unmatched environmental success. This spring, PRIDE wants to break records by rallying more volunteers than ever before. We have set a goal of recruiting 20,000 volunteers to participate in cleaning up our cities, counties, parks, roadsides, lakes and streams.

PRIDE will provide everything you need for the cleanup, including roadside reflector vests, trash bags, gloves and safety tips. The trash bags you fill will be picked up beside the roadway by your supporting county or city. If you would like to organize a cleanup with your church, business or community, PRIDE will gladly assist those efforts. Free T-shirts will also be given to the first 20,000 PRIDE Spring Cleanup volunteers.

PRIDE volunteers have created tremendous results throughout our region. Take a look at a few examples of what Southern and Eastern Kentuckians have accomplished since PRIDE began in 1997:

• 267,247 volunteers have worked 963,091 hours.

• 557,269 bags of trash plus 131,516 tons of trash have been collected.

• 922,865 old tires have been recovered.

After the cleanup, we will be planting redbud trees and seedlings. During the past five years, TOUR Southern and Eastern Kentucky (SEKY) has donated more than 350,000 seedlings to be planted throughout our region. This year, PRIDE and TOUR SEKY are partnering to cleanup- then beautify. Already this year, there have been over 40,000 redbud seedling requests. Please remember, none of this would be possible without the backbone of PRIDE and TOUR SEKY — the volunteers. I hope you will make time to be a part of history!

Take PRIDE in what we have been blessed with in our region… there’s not a more beautiful place in the world.

Sincerely,

Harold Rogers

Member of Congress

Dear Editor,

April has again been recognized as Donate Life Month nationally and here in Kentucky. I feel that this is a good time to thank the many Bell Countians who have supported organ and tissue donation at our drivers license counter by donating $1.00 in support of our Kentucky Circuit Court Clerks Trust For Life and by placing their name on the new Kentucky Organ Donor Registry.

Since May of 2007, when the donor registry question became a part of our drivers license renewal program, more than 575,000 Kentuckians have placed their names on the Kentucky Organ Donor Registry. More than 1,000 names are from Bell County drivers who have signed up when they obtained their drivers license or picture ID at our office.

Organ, tissue and cornea donation saves thousands of lives in our country each year and vastly improves the lives of thousands more. Currently, there are more than 750 names on organ transplant waiting lists here in Kentucky.

Please consider being a registered organ donor and be prepared to say “yes” when you renew your Kentucky drivers license or picture ID.

Thank you.

Colby Slusher

Bell County Circuit Court Clerk