FAIRHOPE, Ala. — A program that combines art, science and education has been tapped for a special recognition. The Eastern Shore Art Center’s “Traveling Pants Show/Delta Denim” will receive a second place Gulf Guardian Award in the Youth and Education category when the honors are handed out Wednesday night in New Orleans.

The award is being bestowed in conjunction with the Gulf of Mexico Program’s 20th anniversary celebration. The program was established in 1988 to protect, restore and maintain the health and productivity of the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem in economically sustainable ways.

Education is a keystone of that effort, and Nancy Raia, director of the Arts Bridging Creativity (ABC) program at ESAC is using art toward those means.

“I was meeting with the Earth Day Committee two years ago, and Bernie Fogarty (of Alabama Power Co.) said ‘let’s do something awesome on a big canvas.’” Raia said although an excellent idea, it wasn’t very practical because ESAC couldn’t afford a massive canvas, and it would be difficult to coordinate the number of students needed to complete it on the same day.

The idea was downsized to some degree when Raia was given several pairs of denim jeans a child had outgrown.

“Many of my projects were born because someone donated something I could create on,” she said. In this case, the blue jeans became the canvas, and Susan Harrell, art teacher at the Baldwin County Alternative School, knew just how they could be used.

Raia said, “I went around and visited as many kids as I could. I asked what kids loved about growing up on Mobile Bay — ‘What do you want to share with your grandkids when you’re 80?’ The kids got into it, and really loved it.”

Second- through 12th-grade students from Baldwin and Mobile counties altered the recycled jeans, more were donated, and all ultimately displayed activities and places around Mobile Bay the kids enjoy, as well as environmental problems the Mobile/Tensaw Delta faces.

Among the things represented on the pants are marine debris problems (filament, plastic, derelict crab traps), endangered species, marshland habitats, pitcher plant bogs and native plants, fish and animals, including the brown pelican.

“In the years since the Gulf of Mexico Program partnership began recognizing Gulf Guardian award winners, literally hundreds of agencies, organizations, businesses and individuals have distinguished themselves,” stated Jimmy Palmer, regional administrator of the EPA office in Atlanta. ”Their efforts to preserve, protect and restore the priceless Gulf of Mexico resources deserve the highest commendation.”

The “Traveling Pants” made stops in Utah at Bear River Migratory Bird Rescue Foundation, twice to Florida, including Destin’s Bass Pro Shops for a major boat show and student ocean awareness festival. They also traveled to Dallas to the Federal Environmental Protection Agency building and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and were so popular they had their own booth on a return trip to the Dallas Earth Day Festival.

Locally, the pants have been hung (on clotheslines) at Hank Aaron Stadium, the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, the Green Coast Conference 2008 at the Mobile Convention Center, the John Borom Coastal BirdFest, the Fairhope Music Festival and the Eastern Shore Art Center.

Raia said the traveling exhibit of the best 44 examples was culled from the nearly 600 pairs of jeans originally displayed at 5 Rivers in Spanish Fort during Earth Fest 2007. She even visited Westminster Village in Spanish Fort, and had residents there try their hand at creating their own “Delta Denim.”

Gulf of Mexico Program officials said the ESAC project has “benefitted the environment through science education and environmental awareness about delta habitats, conservation and recycling, and has spawned classroom discussions, guided field trips and public interest on environmental issues.”

Twenty-eight public and private schools, home-schoolers, 4-H groups and Brownie troops participated in the project so far, and Raia is exploring the possibility of a “Traveling Pants Show/Delta Denim II.”

Raia said the pants project would not have been a success without the help of Harrell, Lee Yokel, retired Mobile art teacher Angela Patrick, Murphy High School art teacher Ruby Lange, Karin Marrero from Convenant Christian School and countless other teachers in both counties.

“I appreciate the art teachers that saw the value of doing art in a public project like that,” she said. “They made me see it was possible.”

The Gulf of Mexico Program initiated the Gulf Guardian awards in 2000 as a way to recognize and honor the businesses, community groups, individuals, and agencies that are taking positive steps to keep the Gulf healthy, beautiful and productive. A first, second and third place award is given each year in seven categories — individual, business, youth and education, nonprofit organizations, government, partnership and bi-national efforts.

The Gulf of Mexico Program is underwritten by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and is a non-regulatory, inclusive consortium of state and federal government agencies and representatives of the business and agricultural community, fishing industry, scientists, environmentalists and community leaders from all five Gulf States.

Bryon Griffith, director of the Gulf of Mexico Program stated, “After nine years of conducting the Gulf Guardian Awards Program, I never cease to be amazed by the quality and depth of environmental accomplishments across the Gulf of Mexico region. The 2008 award winners will play an important part of the Gulf of Mexico Program’s 20th anniversary celebration. These special winners proudly illustrate for all of us what committed citizens, communities, governments, and businesses that share a common vision can do to improve, protect and sustain our regional and national treasure, the Gulf of Mexico.”

For a list of all the Gulf Guardian winners for 2008, visit the Gulf of Mexico Program Web site at www.epa.gov/gmpo and click on the Gulf Guardian Award button.