Dr. Karen Bell

Keep Liberty Beautiful

October is a month that celebrates a lot of things like Breast Cancer Awareness, National Noodle Day, and Rivers Alive. In Liberty County, we celebrate Rivers Alive on the fourth Saturday in October every year for National Make a Difference Day. Having trash on the road or in a park can make something so wonderful, like water, so disgusting. I don’t know about you, but I am not interested in swimming, boating, and playing around in polluted water. I certainly don’t want to drink it.

We must protect our local waterways from having water that we want to drink and swim in and all the other uses we have for water. This month, your chance to make a difference for clean, healthy waterways is happening. The health of our local creeks, streams, rivers, and even the ocean is determined by the choices that we make every day. So, make a positive difference by volunteering on October 28, 2023, for our Annual Rivers Alive events in Liberty County.

Rivers Alive is a statewide effort to preserve and protect our waterways in Georgia. Rivers Alive events are also part of the international efforts of The Ocean Conservancy. In Liberty County, we hold our main Rivers Alive cleanup day on National Make a Difference Day on Saturday, October 28, 2023. Rivers Alive in Liberty County is a registered event for this national volunteer drive.

The health of our waterways depends on us. At Rivers Alive, we can make a difference as volunteers by stopping litter in its tracks at over forty locations in our County. Trash that begins its life as litter in the west end of the County is just as devastating as trash tossed from a boat in the Intercoastal Waterway. Unfortunately, litter travels! We have cleanups throughout the County because our community is full of wetlands, creeks, and streams. About 40 percent of Liberty County is wetlands, marshes, creeks, streams, and rivers. It is crucial to stop litter before it makes its journey downstream.

We like to catch litter where it happens before it ends up in deep rivers and the ocean, where litter retrieval becomes a very challenging situation. Litter anywhere in our County threatens the waters throughout our community. Our goal is to have more than 600 volunteers this year. Last year, we had 533 volunteers, and with your help, we can surpass that! We already have several groups registered with over 58 volunteers at this point! Thanks to all the Adopt Liberty Groups and families who have already registered to volunteer, but we still need YOU. You can make a powerful difference where you live in just a few hours of your time on a Saturday.

Thanks to our sponsor, SNF Holding Company, we try to make these cleanups enjoyable! We will have official Rivers Alive t-shirts for the first 600 volunteers registered! We also provide all the cleanup supplies for our hardworking volunteers. SNF, the County, and our local cities provide volunteers lunch after each cleanup. We appreciate the County, the Cities, and SNF for supporting this important event because these cleanups would not be possible without them. So, Liberty County’s churches, businesses, organizations, families, neighborhoods, and civic clubs are encouraged to make a difference! Plan to participate and register now! You can sign up on the Keep Liberty Beautiful website or Facebook page. If you have questions, contact us at Keep Liberty Beautiful. You can call (912) 880-4888 or email klcb@libertycountyga. com.

If October 28, 2023, does not work for you and your group, we can schedule a cleanup date that works for you. From Walthourville to the Atlantic Ocean, our waterways need YOU! Do not take clean water for granted! Join us for Rivers Alive 2023!