It has been another record year for Liberty County’s Annual Rivers Alive events held in October and extending into November.  This year 914 volunteers have signed up to participate in this annual event to protect our local waterways. This was an increase of 51 volunteers over last year. These numbers in themselves are just that—simply numbers. The big deal is the number of citizens who cared enough about the quality of local waterways to make time to help where they could in over 50 cleanup locations throughout the county.

We are so thankful for this kind of participation. They understand that water—clean, unpolluted water---is a treasure. Over 40 percent of Liberty County is waterways (creeks, streams, rivers, ponds, marshes and wetlands). We are the ones who pollute these areas and we are the ones who need to take responsibility for protecting them. Together we can make a positive difference for all of these incredibly vulnerable waterways around us.

The mission of Rivers Alive is to create awareness of and involvement in the preservation of Georgia’s water resources---big and small. The State Rivers Alive Program targets cleanups across all waterways in the State of Georgia, including creeks, streams, rivers, lakes, wetlands and the ocean. Rivers Alive is a statewide waterway cleanup effort sponsored by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and Keep Georgia Beautiful in collaboration with the international efforts of The Ocean Conservancy. Rivers Alive has celebrated over 15 years of cleaning up Georgia’s waterways. Throughout the history of Rivers Alive, over 368,000 volunteers have extracted 9.2 million pounds of garbage from 26.2 thousand miles of waterway. These numbers indicate the tremendous impact this program has had on communities and their watersheds.

We wish we could list every person who volunteered but here are the groups that recruited volunteers to participate this year. We sincerely thank every volunteer who joined us in this effort to clean up over fifty-eight locations in Liberty County: SNF Chemtall; Ardyss KBell Group; Lexington Neighborhood; Forest Lake Neighborhood; New Day Community Church; Liberty County 4H; Bradwell Institute WBL; LCHS Interact Club; City of Allenhurst; City of Walthourville; City of Midway; City of Flemington; City of Riceboro; City of Hinesville; City of GumBranch; Ladies of Character Organization; Georgia Forestry Commission; Target Corporation; Youth Challenge Academy; Fort Stewart American Red Cross youth group; The Red Club; Pine Ridge Neighborhood; Westview Neighborhood;  Tommy Long and Friends of Colonel’s Island; Water Systems Management; Treasure Savannah; the Johnson Family; Top Ladies of Distinction; Soldiers United MC; Top Teens of America; Untouchable Queenz Social Club; Earl White; MMS Green Team; Georgia Power Company; Southland Knights; Eleven Black Men of Liberty County; LCPC; HDDA; Harrison Heights Neighborhood; Patricia Nash Family; G.I.F.T.S.; the Grandchildren of Mrs. LeGirtha Jones and Azalea Street Neighborhood; Pure Platinum; ESG Operations, Inc.; Connection Church; Liberty County Chamber of Commerce and CVB; MEDDAC; DENTAC; Liberty County Financial Employees; Kappa Lambda Chi Fraternity; Liberty County Solid Waste Department; Liberty County Information Technology Department; Liberty County EMA; DPTMS; and certainly our St Catherines Beach Captains and Crew---David C Sapp, Jake Rozier, Mike St Onge, Lynch Grady, Philip Grainey, Chris and Jennifer Driggers, and Michael Mack.

A very special thanks goes to Phyllis Tucker and her SNF crew who prepared a delicious thank-you lunch for all our volunteers on the main event day and to SNF for sponsoring this event each year and making it possible. 

Thank you, Liberty County citizens, for a great Rivers Alive event this year! For information on how you can make a difference in your community contact Keep Liberty Beautiful at 912-880-4888 or klcb@libertycountyga.com.