2013 Washington River Festival & Clean-up Results

Washington River Festival & Clean-up 2013

James W. Rennick Riverfront Park, Washington MO

April 20th, 2013

• Festival Attendees: an estimated 1,000 festival attendees
• Trash-to-Art Auction: raised $1,000 on the spot!
• Total Clean-up Volunteers:  72
• MRR Crew:  16
• “Day on the River” Students & Teachers:  200 (4th, 5th, & 6th grade students from St. Francis Borgia, Washington West Elementary School, Labadie Elementary and Our Lady of Lourdes)
•  “What the River Means to Me” Entries:  266 poems, artwork and essays
• Boats: 0 – Due to river levels, we had to switch to a land-based clean-up
• Land Sites: 5  (Riverfront Park, Riverfront Park Trail, Lions Lake/Tieman Dr., Dundee Road & River Access, Augusta Bottoms Rd. scour holes)Miles Cleaned:  an estimated 5 miles
• River Level: 21.5 feet (flood stage) 
• Tires: 24 (an estimated .42 tons)
• Landfill Tonnage:  an estimated 2.2 tons
• Scrap Metal:  an estimated .09 tons

Total Tonnage:  an estimated 2.7 tons!

Groups & Agencies Involved:  Missouri River Relief crew, Missouri River Festival committee, City of Washington Parks and Rec Department, Kohl’s Cares, Clean Stream Crusaders, The Mighty Stream Team 211, Wading 4 Mayflies, St. Peters UCC, Ross Braun Stream Team 4746, Fish, Washington Environmental Club, Mizzou Water & Environment Technologists (WET)

Event Sponsors:  Kohl’s, Gloria Attoun and Michael Bauermeister, Mike and Maria Smith, Franz Mayer, Gary & Sandy Lucy, Bank of Washington, Washington Boat Club, City of Washington Parks and Rec Department, MO Dept. of Conservation, MO Dept. of Natural Resources, Missouri Stream Team, Walmart, Washington Rotary Club, Washington Optimist Club, Office Max, Wells Fargo Investment

Educational Booths & Activities: “What the River Means to Me” River Education school project, World Bird Sanctuary, Trash to Art, Wyman Center, Washington Historical Society, Greenway Network, Washington Public Library, Hillermann’s Nursery & Florist, Earth’s Classroom, Missouri River Relief, The Open Space Council, Missouri Stream Team, Missouri Master Naturalists, Labadie Environmental Organization, Washington Urban Forestry Council, Washington Community Garden, Washington Healing Arts Center, Present Moment Yoga & Mindful Movement, Perennial, Silver Seed Farms, Environmental Energy Consultants, Native American Tipi, Four Rivers Roots & Shoots, Botanical Walk with Bill Davit, Yoga on the lawn, “Rambling River Quilt”, Food Booths:  Bob and Pat’s BBQ, Joe’s Deli, Augusta Brewery  Music:  Babaloo, Augusta Bottoms Consort, Terry Corcoran, The Texas Giants

Trash Tally!!!

103 Bags of Trash (4 packed full of glass bottles/broken glass)
24 Tires
1 Screwdriver
1 – 55 gal. plastic Trash Can
1 – 5 gal. plastic Buckets
1 – 5 gal. Water Cooler
1 – 5 gal. Metal Gas Can
1 Refrigerator
1 bag of Scrap Metal
2 - 30 gallon Plastic Tubs – (1 yellow, 1 green)
1 Plastic Crate
3 License Plates
1 Car Bumper
1 Honda Side Mirror
1 Hubcap – Desoto
1 Carburetor
4 TV’s
2 - 10’ pieces of Rebar
2 - 20’ corrugated Plastic Pipe
3 unopened bottles Bacardi Raz
1 Downspout Guttering
1 iron Fence Post
1 wooden Fence Post
1 metal Sheeting
1 clay Drain Pipe
1 Refrigerator Coil
1 “No Trespassing” Sign
1 Highway Directional Sign
1 large piece of Carpet
1 Swimming Pool liner (folded over and over into the mud)
1 turquoise Oven Door – Hotpoint
1 Key to a Four Wheeler
1 pair of Long Underwear
1 Computer Mother Board
1 plastic Office Chair Mat
1 Toilet Pieces
1 Cabinet
1 Door
1 Baby Doll Arm
1 Shaving Crème – travel size
1 iron Commemorative Plaque – “Matt Ferguson, 1894 to 1969”
1 bag of Sudafed wrappers
1 pile of Roof Shingles

Missouri River Education

The mission of Missouri River Relief is to connect people to the Missouri River through hands-on river clean-ups, education events and stewardship activities.

It's been 11 years since Missouri River Relief held our first community clean-up in Easley, MO.  Cleaning up all the trash on the Missouri River is a daunting goal.  Very quickly we realized that the easiest way to get rid of the trash is if it never ends up in the river in the first place.

Education is the key.

Missouri River Relief's Education Program provides on-the-river, hands-on educational activities for children and adults that help foster a better understanding and appreciation of the Missouri River.  During an event we've started to organize called "Day on the River", we combine Service Learning with hands-on booths from experts in various river related fields, and then actually take students out on the river.

Hands-on learning is the focus.  The riverbank is the location.  River Relief and its partners bring scientists, educators and volunteers together to share their expertise with hundreds of school children right where it matters most.  Through direct experience and a little effort, they walk away with a renewed relationship to the river and more knowledge than they thought they'd gain on a boat trip. 

During the last decade, this mission has introduced more than 30,000 students, teachers and volunteers to the beauty and importance of the Missouri River.  By teaching the values of clean water and the impacts of human pollution on wildlife and ecosystems, we give our community the knowledge to make change in local evnironmental issues.

We spent two days recently with North Kansas City students from Benjamin Banneker Charter Academy of Technology and Staley High School.  Experts from the Mo. Dept. of Conservation, National Weather Service, US Geological Survey and US Environmental Protection Agency came to teach students about reptiles, water quality, hydrology and the history of the Missouri River.

During both the morning and afternoon session, Missouri River Relief got to take the kids out on the river to see the sights and clean up a bunch of trash. Most of these students had never been on the river, and we could see doors opening as the day went on.  The kids hammed it up with the attention they were getting as we captured the event on camera, and tried to act normal despite their excitement when the TV crews showed up and took this amazing footage:



It also amazes me that the kids that are really into getting trash out of the river always gravitate to the biggest items.  Here, both of my student groups went after the biggest tires they could find!  

 

Over the previous several weeks, Fran and Dave Stous, chairs of Missouri River Relief's Education Committee, began to teach lessons in the classroom about the Watershed, Where Trash Comes From, Recycling, and Stormwater from lesson plans that had finnally been formalized and  formatted by the committee.  Here's a photo of Fran & Dave greeting the buses arriving on Tuesday, Oct. 16th.

Students were then invited to bring their family to our annual Big Muddy River Clean-up in Kansas City, and treated to a free t-shirt, that featured some of Missouri River Relief's favorite wilflife that inhabits the river.  A Great Blue Heron and River Turtle!  (Okay, the turtle actually pictured is not a river turtle, but close enough)

This project was supported in part by grants from Mid-America Regional Council, Captain Planet Foundation and USFWS Columbia Ecological Services.

Check out our Flickr albums to see all of the wonderful groups we've had the pleasure of getting out on the river in 2012!  Here:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/8478409@N03/collections/72157629674561251/

The Big Muddy Teaches Tons!

The Missouri River Watershed Festival
Kaw Point Park, Kansas City, KS
Oct. 2, 2009
text and photos by Vicki Richmond

Middle school students have uncanny ways of grasping a concept. We’ve found over years of trial and error, that students learn with their minds- and noses, and eyes and ears and hands and feet! At the Missouri River Watershed Festival, 32 exhibits worked hard to engage all of a student’s learning centers with hands-on exhibits. Nearly 600 students at Kaw Point left buses and immediately were engaged in the history and ecological significance of the confluence of the Kansas and Missouri Rivers.

Students are provided with a passport listing each exhibitor’s contact information and posing a question that can be answered by participation in each exhibit’s activity. We hope that we’ve been successful in making watershed awareness a part of the student’s school experience.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is conducting a collaborative long-term study and planning process called the Missouri River Ecosystem Restoration Plan (MRERP) (www.mrerp.org). Last week the MRERP committee traveled to a local middle school and was amazed at how much the kids knew about their watershed. When asked how they were so well educated, the kids responded that they’d been to the Festival on Friday.

When I look at the diversity of experiences offered at the Festival: a trash boat, ready to host a clean up the next day, a 50 lb catfish found just upstream of Kaw Point, a stream trailer showing how water effects landscapes, water quality demonstrations, a recycle relay, gooey garbage, beakers and computers and puppet shows, I understand how well we’ve done our jobs.

We’ve offered urban, suburban, and rural kids the opportunity to learn something in their own unique way. We’ve immersed the whole person in learning about how important water is to our lives, and how our actions affect an entire watershed.

And when an outside committee goes into a classroom and the students are aware and engaged because of the Missouri River Watershed festival, we know that education effort is working!

The Missouri River Watershed Festival is organized by a partnership of local non-profits and agencies including: Little Blue River Watershed Coalition, Platte Land Trust, Wyandotte County Conservation District and US Geological Survey and Missouri River Relief. Many more smart folks join up the day of the event to share their knowledge with the students. Thanks to all!