2013 Clean-up Results
In 2013, River Relief volunteers got a lot done.
1,637 Volunteers helped remove 38 Tons of Trash from 89 miles of river!
We enjoyed a relatively calm & low water year on the Missouri River... lots of slow water, with sand bars and wing dikes re-emerging from the muddy depths. The year was unseasonably cool & wet, but in early June of course, river levels from Glasgow to St. Charles were the 10th highest on record all of a sudden. The river rose fast and furious; we hadn't seen water that high since 1995, or trees that huge just cruising down the swirling Big Muddy.
Luckily, we only had to post-pone one clean-up, and were able to help out around our home-port, Cooper's Landing. When the waters receded, volunteers were shuttled by boat to begin the mucky clean-up process of scooping, washing and sanitizing all of the mud out of the buildings. Then we carried on, finishing one of our busiest & smoothest years yet!
Check out our 2013 results listed on the right »
What makes it possible is a confluence of engaged partners with a simple, but difficult goal; bringing their community together across city and state boundaries to work along a single river system.
A nucleus of dedicated volunteer crew members have been putting in long weekends since 2001, travelled the length of the Lower Missouri River many times over, honed our event systems and shepherded over thousands of volunteers onto boats to clean up the Big Muddy.
There's citizen groups and individuals in each community that welcome our project and help get it done. There's volunteers from countless groups, families and backgrounds that give up their Saturday morning to improve their river.
There's a fleet of boat operators. State and federal agencies, local river-oriented businesses, friends with boats, outfitters with fleets of canoes - they all share the belief that this is part of their duty to the river they love.
There's a long list of sponsors and partners - they provide the cash and services it takes to mobilize this clean-up effort. From fuel to t-shirts, to reusable water bottles and dumpsters. It's a community effort. A HUGE thanks to Bass Pro Shops for coming through with a brand new 115 -hp Mercury motor for one of our downed plate boats this year too. It's help like this that really enables us to keep turning the props on this clean-up machine.
2013 was Missouri River Relief's 13th year, and it was a great success thanks to you!
Stay posted - we've got new & exciting plans cooking, especially on the education front! Because the easiest way to get rid of trash, is if it never ends up in the river in the first place.
See you on the river in 2014!
photos by Melanie Cheney and Bernie Arnold