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A Quarterly Publication of Rivers Alive
Thank you for another great year of Rivers Alive cleanups!
Photo: Susan Staley, Broad River Cleanup Float 2021
Thank you to all the incredible volunteers and organizers that helped make 2021 another successful year of Rivers Alive cleanups. As we dive into a new year of preserving and protecting Georgia's waterways, we are thankful for all you have done and continue to do to maintain the health and beauty of our state's rivers. In 2021, volunteers removed 6,776 beverage cans, 4,115 food wrappers, 6,541 cigarette butts and thousands more items from Georgia waters. Some unique finds include a broken model plane, a plastic skull, old video game cards, an antique steering wheel, and more! We encourage all volunteers to continue taking the time to record exact quantities of each item collected when participating in a cleanup. Your numbers are reported to the International Coastal Cleanup and help document debris in our local and international waterways!
Check out more of this year's data on the Cleanup Results page of the website and look out for the annual report in the coming months.
Save the Date
2021 Awards Ceremony and Luncheon
The 2021 Awards Ceremony and Luncheon is approaching, and we hope to see you there! The ceremony will begin with a brief welcome, followed by comments from Jerry Hightower from the National Parks Service. During lunch we will review the 2021 cleanup successes and recognize the incredible work of our cleanup volunteers during the awards ceremony.
Food and drinks will be included, but attendees will be responsible for the $5 parking fee. Space is limited to 70 attendees, so please RSVP here.
Event Details
Date and Time:
Wednesday, April 27th, 2022
from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM
Venue:
Park Tavern
500 10th St NE
Atlanta, GA 30309
Board Member Highlight
Nikki Belmonte
Environmental Education Coordinator
Executive Director, Keep Roswell Beautiful
RA: What brought you to the Rivers Alive Board?
NB: As a city-level environmental educator, one of my jobs is to provide stewardship opportunities to the riverside community of Roswell. I recognized quickly that people look forward to Rivers Alive every year, so I work hard to make it a successful, sought-out experience for our residents and neighbors. I am excited to contribute to the larger vision to ensure it remains popular and impactful as a statewide movement.
RA: What do you believe are the most pressing water related issues in our state?
NB: Water is taken for granted. People do not understand or appreciate the human, or urban, water cycle, and how our choices affect all living things and water quality. The overuse of herbicides and pesticides for the American lawn is the issue that bothers me the most.
RA: What can community members do to support RA in our state?
NB: Participating in a local Rivers Alive cleanup event is a great way to support cleaner waterways. Get in there and see what we as environmental professionals see, and then you will understand the importance of programs like Rivers Alive.
RA: What is your favorite Georgia waterway?
NB: The Tallulah River north of Highway 76 in North Georgia is my favorite waterway in the state; it is stunning and fun to hike around.
Sponsor Highlight
As one of the leading manufacturers of wire and cable used in the transmission and distribution of electricity, and an emerging influence in the industrial electrical space, Southwire Company, LLC helps provide power to millions of people around the world. Nearly one in two new homes built in the United States contain our wire, and we produce half of the cable used to transmit and distribute electricity throughout the nation. More than half of the world’s refined copper passes through one of our SCR® systems; our wire plays a key role in the manufacturing of other products, including automotive wiring harnesses and electrical motors; and our Tools, Components & Assembled Solutions (TCAS) business continues to grow.
Headquartered in Carrollton, Georgia, we have more than 7,000 full and part-time employees working in more than 40 cities throughout the United States, Mexico, Canada, Honduras, China, and the Netherlands. With approximately $8 billion in revenue in 2021, Southwire continues to energize the lives of people everywhere.
As a family business, Southwire proudly continues building on our commitment to environmental stewardship and corporate sustainability by prioritizing stakeholder expectations and supporting the wellbeing of our communities and the environment in which we live. To help us meet this commitment, we organize our sustainability strategy around five core tenets: Growing Green, Living Well, Giving Back, Doing Right and Building Worth. For more on Southwire’s products, its community involvement, and its vision of sustainability, visit  our website. We are currently working on our 2021 sustainability report, which is expected to release in July 2022.
Water continues to be a focal point for our sustainability efforts, and Southwire’s Project GIFT is partnering with Water Mission to host a Walk for Water on Saturday, April 16 at 10 A.M. at our Carrollton Corporate location. Water Mission is a non-profit organization that strives to end the global water crisis by bringing fresh water to those in less fortunate circumstances.
At the event, participants will walk the daily route that many people in the world take to get water. During the Walk, individuals will carry an empty bucket for approximately 1.5 miles before filling it with water and walking approximately 1.5 miles back to Southwire’s Corporate parking lot. Online registration for this event is open and will close on April 8.
Spring Cleanups
Photo: Jodie Gilfillan, City of Chamblee Cleanup 2021
The Rivers Alive state office has limited numbers of extra t-shirts from previous years available to provide for cleanup events during the springtime. These items make great additions to your cleanup event as a thank-you item to cleanup volunteers! Contact us at Rivers.Alive@dnr.ga.gov to inquire about availability.
If you have any additional t-shirts from your cleanup, please return them to the Rivers Alive state office so we can distribute them to other cleanup organizers. We will also use any leftover organizer or volunteer tally sheets, trash bags, bookmarks, or posters from your cleanups.
Our address is:
Rivers Alive
2 MLK Jr. Dr. SE, Suite 1462 East
Atlanta, GA 30334
Like us on Facebook to stay up-to-date on the latest Rivers Alive news! Tag us in your cleanup posts and photos and use #gariversalive for a chance to be featured on our page. We love to see all the good work you do!
Sponsors
The mission of Rivers Alive is to create awareness of and involvement in the preservation of Georgia's water resources. This would not be possible without the generous financial support of the corporate sponsors listed below.
Major Corporate Sponsors
 
 
  
Additional Support From
Fieldale Farms Poultry | Eversheds Sutherland | JDS, Inc.
Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders | Zee Company
If you would like to sponsor Rivers Alive, please find more information on our Sponsorship page.
Rivers Alive is a program of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division Outreach Unit.
www.RiversAlive.Georgia.gov 470-524-0620 | 470-524-5791 Rivers.Alive@dnr.ga.gov
The preparation of this newsletter was financed in part through a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under provisions of Section 319(h) of the Federal Clean Water Act of 1987, as amended.
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