CONTACT:
Kelley O'Brien
Clean Water Campaign
404-463-3259
VOLUNTEERS AWARDED FOR CLEANING STREAMS
Volunteers and stream cleanup organizers from across the state are convening at Georgia Power on Friday, February 25, 2005 to celebrate the accomplishments of the state's largest cleanup, Rivers Alive. The Rivers Alive award ceremony will recognize small to large groups with the greatest success as well as present an individual leadership and business leadership award.
Georgia Environmental Protection Division Director Carol A. Couch will be speaking at the event. The Division's Adopt-A-Stream Program along with Keep Georgia Beautiful jointly hosts the Rivers Alive Cleanup Program annually. Other notables at the award presentation will include award winning nature photographer, Joe Cook, will be the keynote speaker at the event speaking about his travels and photographs on the Etowah River. Other notables that will attend the presentation include state senators and county commissioners. During the 2004 River Cleanup, more than 22,000 volunteers cleaned over 1,250 miles of waterways and removed over 590,000 pounds of trash and garbage including washing machines, couches, sinks, televisions, microwaves, tires, shingles and general trash.
The Rivers Alive Awards honor the efforts of individuals and groups who are working to improve Georgia's waterways one trash bag at a time. Area residents wade into metro rivers, lakes and streams annually as part of the continuing statewide campaign to clean and preserve over 70,000 miles of Georgia's rivers and streams as part of Rivers Alive each fall. The Outstanding Waterway Cleanup Award was established to recognize cleanup groups that have successfully involved their local community to create an awareness of and involvement in the preservation of Georgia's water resources. The Leadership Award was established to recognize the efforts of individuals and sponsors for their hard work and dedication to protecting Georgia's water resources.
The awards recipients were chosen from applications submitted to Rivers Alive by a 3-5 member committee that evaluated the application against the questions listed on the application. The official names of the awards and their winners are as follows:
Watershed Leadership award - Janet Pearson, Lake Oconee Property Owners Association
Business Leadership award - Georgia Power
Ocean Category- Help the Hooch
Lake Category - Coweta 4-H Adopt-A-Stream
River Category - Pulaski County & City of Hawkinsville
River Category - Etowah Water & Sewer Authority
The 2004 Rivers Alive Sponsors Include: Georgia Power, Fox 5 Television, the Coca-Cola Company, BellSouth, Georgia-Pacific Corporation, International Paper, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Kodak Polychrome Graphics, Meadwestvaco Coated Board Division, Miller Brewing Company, Mohawk Industries Inc., Oglethorpe Power Corporation, Plum Creek Timber Company, Temple-Inland, and United Parcel Service Inc.; and contributors Brown and Caldwell, and Ornstein-Schuler Capital Partners LLC., are the corporations who sponsored Rivers Alive in 2004 and provided the funding to produce and distribute t-shirts and banners to the volunteers.
Support for this program is provided by Georgia Adopt-A-Stream, Georgia Department of Natural Resources Environmental Protection Division, Keep Georgia Beautiful and Affiliates, Georgia Department of Community Affairs, Clean Coast Inc., Clean Water Campaign, The Coca-Cola Company, Columbus Water Works, Georgia Land Trust, Georgia Project WET/River of Words, Georgia Power, Georgia River Network, International Paper, MeadWestvaco, National Park Service - Chattahoochee River National Recreational Area, Oxbow Meadows Environmental Learning Center, and Peavine Watershed Alliance.
About Rivers Alive Rivers Alive targets cleanups across all waterways in the State of Georgia including streams, rivers, lakes, and wetlands. The mission of Rivers Alive is to create awareness of and involvement in the preservation of Georgia's water resources. To volunteer/participate in a local cleanup effort or to obtain more information about the statewide campaign, call 404-675-1636 or go to www.riversalive.org.
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