Big Stone Gap Awarded $1,000 Green Grant

Congratulations to the Township of Big Stone Gap, today’s award of our 2021 Green Grants!  They will receive a $1000 grant for their Cigarette Litter Prevention Project.  We’ll be announcing one each day during the month of June. 

Big Stone Gap is a town of over 5,000 people in Wise County. The Township is working to beautifying the downtown historical district and convert from a coal-reliant entity to a tourism-driven economy. With surrounding historical venues and outdoor recreation, he Historic Downtown is currently growing with several new restaurants and shops.

However, as tourism activity has increased in Big Stone Gap, there has been a subsequent rise in cigarette littering. Big Stone Gap will use funds from their Green Grants award to purchase and install cigarette receptacles in high traffic areas around town, including the historic downtown and public parks. The placement of receptacles will provide a significant reduction in cigarette littering, and beautify the town in the process.

Every year, government, non-profit, civic and service organizations in Virginia were invited to apply for grants for $500 to $1,000 describing how they plan to tackle an environmental concern in their community regarding Litter Prevention, Recycling, Cigarette Litter Prevention, or Community Beautification.  Since 2011, Keep Virginia Beautiful has provided $254,500 for 320 different environmental programs and projects all across the Commonwealth, due to the generosity of their partnership with Altria, as well as additional support from Coca-Cola, WestRock and Keep America Beautiful.