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Art Students Help Kenneth City Send Anti-Water Pollution Message

Kenneth City | Environment | Public Works Truck

Students from St. Petersburg Christian School provided the art displayed on Kenneth City’s public works trucks. It’s part of the town’s anti-water pollution education campaign.

KENNETH CITY – Art students from nearby St. Petersburg Christian School partnered with Kenneth City on an education campaign designed to help prevent water pollution.

The anti-water pollution messages are displayed on the town’s public works trucks. Kenneth City’s messages are part of a statewide education campaign being led by municipalities to promote awareness of the negative effects of water pollution resulting from stormwater runoff. Similar education programs promote clean water and compliance with the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System.

Created in 1972 by the Clean Water Act, the NPDES is used by the Environmental Protection Agency to perform many permitting, administrative, and enforcement aspects of the program.

The educational messages applied to the sides of two Kenneth City Public Works trucks satisfies NPDES requirements for public education and outreach initiatives, but with a twist.

Over the past several years, Kenneth City Town Manager Matt Campbell has seen other municipalities “wrap” vehicles with similar educational messages. Those often included sea turtles, manatees, and trees in their imagery. Rather than use an “off the shelf image” commonplace in other communities, or one that included coastal elements not commonly found in Kenneth City, Campbell opted for a slightly different approach by using children’s artwork.

Campbell said he had seen one community that used children’s artwork to build awareness of the ill effects of water and thought, “there is something unique and special about children’s artwork that is both appealing and eye catching.”

So Campbell called Amy Kraus, principal of St. Petersburg Christian School. Several students volunteered to provide sample artwork focusing on the importance of proper collection and disposal of pet waste.​

Campbell, Town Engineer Justin Keller, and Mike Mangone at Signarama in Pinellas Park collaborated on a design that includes a view of one of Kenneth City’s freshwater lakes as well as the kids’ artwork. The resulting image is a collage of children’s educational messages and artwork blended into a freshwater wetland scene.

The joint message is a first for Kenneth City and the greater Pinellas County area, Campbell said.

Funding for the project came from a 2018 Stormwater Education Grant from the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council and the Florida Department of Education.

Kenneth City | Environment | Public Works Truck

Photos courtesy of the town of Kenneth City.

Kenneth City | Matt Campbell | Environment | Water Pollution | Tampabay News

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