Pride group wins state honors

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November 20, 2009

Anonymous The McAlester News-Capital Fri Nov 20, 2009, 10:24 AM CST

OKLAHOMA CITY — In just its first year of operations, the beautification group Pride In McAlester won three of 18 statewide Awards of Environmental Excellence from Keep Oklahoma Beautiful on Tuesday night.

Pride In McAlester took top honors in its population category of Community Effort and two Great American Cleanup honors as the Best Rookie Effort and the Best Oklahoma Department of Transportation Trash-Off.

The Awards of Excellence and seven special board commendation awards were presented in front of more than 350 guests at Keep Oklahoma Beautiful’s 19th annual awards banquet in Oklahoma City.

The presenters noted that Pride In McAlester turned out more than 6,800 volunteers last spring, picking up 211 tons of trash.

Mercy Health Center in Oklahoma City was named “The Best of the Environmental Best,” the organization’s top award, for establishing an exhaustive program of green initiatives, proving sustainability pays in more ways than one, according to Keep Oklahoma Beautiful.

James E. Horne, PhD., was presented the organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award for his decades of work and international impact as president of the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture in Poteau.

Also receiving special recognition were Guaranteed Watt Savers, Oklahoma City, with the Vanguard Award; the Apache Foundation, Houston, with the President’s Philanthropy Award; and Joe Cox, president of H.I.S. Paint Manufacturing in Oklahoma City, with the Towering Spirit Award.

Also, OGE Energy Corp. and One Net, both of Oklahoma City, along with the Sutton Avian Research Center in Bartlesville and Atlas Computers in Owasso, sharing the Team Builders Award; and Ray Ackerman and former mayor Ron Norick, both of Oklahoma City, sharing the Visionary Leadership Award.

Keep Oklahoma Beautiful was established in 1965 as a statewide nonprofit organization with a mission to encourage, promote and facilitate efforts to improve and enhance Oklahoma’s aesthetic and environmental quality of life.