The Maryland Sponsor A Highway® Program began in 2006 and is thriving as it approaches a decade. A partnership between Adopt A Highway Maintenance Corporation® and the Maryland Department of Transportation, the SHA helped fill in the gaps for highway maintenance left by the state and volunteers. What grew out of this commitment was cooperation between the Adopt-A-Highway volunteer program and sponsors to ensure the environmental benefit of clean highways throughout the state.
The Adopt-A-Highway program covers the state’s secondary roads, while the Sponsor A Highway® Program allows coverage of interstates. Though Maryland’s Adopt- A-Highway program includes 323 groups and has covered 15,000 miles of roads since it began in 1989, extra coverage was clearly needed. While the volunteers had reduced litter along the roadways, lakes and other natural landmarks, major interstates were neglected.
In stepped the Maryland Sponsor A Highway® Program, which allows businesses to sponsor litter removal while acknowledging their efforts with a recognition sign at the adopted section of highway. Currently, there are over 100 sponsors in the program. The state’s largest sponsor, Royal Farms, has understood the impact they can make through the Sponsor A Highway® Program. Businesses benefit from the eyes on the road. Along Maryland’s major highways, over 150,000 motorists drive through on a daily basis.
Through the permission of the SHA, volunteers were able to create a role for themselves in this philanthropic effort. The community has united through both these programs to help keep their towns clean.
Maryland is just one example of a prospering market that has flourished from cooperation between the Department of Transportation, Adopt A Highway Maintenance Corporation® and the volunteer state program. At AHMC, we love to see the personal responsibility that volunteers feel and the appreciation for highway sponsorship by businesses in all of our markets.
To learn how you can become a sponsor in Maryland or any other market, please call us at (800) 200-0003 or email us at info@adoptahighway.com.
