Rivers Alive 2012: A success!

Wow, what a day! Rivers Alive 2012 is now completed and can I just say I was very impressed. Over 300 volunteers braved the chill morning air to protect and prevent our rivers from contamination. Families, students, county employees, and many others joined us for this wonderful day of service and environmental stewardship.

I had the distinct pleasure of managing over the "Trash to Treasure" table at the event where participants brought interesting items that were found along their journey in the hopes of being one of the six awarded treasures. I believe that the stigma attached to "trash" in no way describes what was brought to my table. In every aspect of the word, these finds were treasure. To list just a few items that were discovered (I could talk for at least 15 minutes about how cool they were), we were presented with a road work sign, a complete bicycle, a shopping cart that was in fair condition, a calendar from 1987, a cell phone complete with charger, a dirt bike, and much much more.

If you are in a state of shock that these items were ACTUALLY found in or along the North and Middle Oconee please be comforted by the fact that they have now been properly disposed of. Next time you see one of the stylish forest green t-shirts that participants received, say thank you! These participants have done an amazing thing for the watershed and our community in Athens Clarke county.

I want to chime in quickly about the word community. Sometimes it is easy to forget the true meaning of this word when you are someone like me who goes to school in Athens and only resides here for 9 months out of the year. Saturday was my chance to see the word community come into action. Environmental thinking or awareness sometimes gets linked to political beliefs and opinions. On Saturday, the idea behind cleaning up our watershed was purely one of bettering our community. People of all kinds took part in the service project regardless of belief, opinion, or ideals. On either end of the spectrum, protecting our environment is protecting our community, and who can argue with that?

Nicole Duffy- Intern