Picking up riverfront trash, one piece at a time

Chad Pregracke has been named a CNN Hero for his commitment to our River. For the past three years, he and his Living Lands and Waters volunteers have visited Memphis each spring. With local volunteers from the University of Memphis (the River Warriors) and others, they've tackled the debris in McKellar Lake and our industrial port.

The scale was smaller when local Memphis volunteer groups and individuals hooked together to give downtown a spring cleaning, but the intention was the same. As Pregracke says, it's about more than conservation, it's about "creating a chance for people to go out there and do something positive."

Hook Up to Clean Up - on Memphis Cobblestone Landing (click to enlarge)

Click HERE for more photos from the clean-up and below for a short video on Pregracke and his fantastic work. This spring on McKellar Lake, Living Lands and Waters collected more than 120,000 pounds of garbage in 14 days.