WS Chronicle

In above photo: Volunteers at a past Community Day event hosted by KWSB (submitted photo)

Special to The Chronicle

Keep Winston-Salem Beautiful (KWSB) plans to partner with Forsyth County Cooperative Extension volunteers to work with schools in Winston-Salem that have been historically under-represented in KWSB programs and activities.

The partner schools will be announced at the start of the 2015-16 academic year in August.

The initiative will connect each school and the surrounding neighborhoods to a Forsyth County Cooperative Extension volunteer to assist with initial efforts, said Robert Leak III, the president of Keep Winston-Salem Beautiful.

“My hope is that the selected schools will begin to participate in KWSB’s annual beautification projects,” Leak said, “and that the beauty will spill into distressed areas of the city, possibly sparking other community projects.”

Shanika Gray, a Forsyth County Cooperative Extension and 4-H agent, said, “Forsyth County Cooperative Extension and 4-H are excited to support the KWSB initiative that will improve the landscape of our city and school grounds. This is an opportunity to educate more youth and communities about the importance of being good stewards of the Earth, with the guidance of our Master Gardener volunteers.”

Leak, who was recently elected as the first African-American president of the KWSB board, hopes to use his position to increase community involvement as well as citizen participation in schools and neighborhoods that have been under-represented in such KWSB activities as Clean and Green, Adopt-A-Street and Adopt-A-Stream programs.

Keep Winston-Salem Beautiful, an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, is a nonprofit, volunteer organization whose mission is to enhance the appearance of the city through cleanup events, beautification projects, educational activities, including the Big Sweep waterway cleanup, Community Roots Day and the Great American Cleanup.