River Clean-Up w/ Phi Kappa Psi & the Ocean Conservancy

On Saturday September 26th, the Rivers Institute organized a river clean-up with the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity at RiverScape in downtown Dayton. The fraternity contacted us about potential service work revolved around the Dayton community and its rivers in August and we were happy to facilitate such an event. We were even happier when we realized it was the group's first-ever visit to RiverScape and we hope it is just the beginning to connecting them to the river and the larger Dayton community.
This clean-up was also exciting because it was the first time the Rivers Institute partnered with the Ocean Conservancy in their annual world-wide Inter-Coastal Clean-Up (ICC), to eliminate marine debris. The Rivers Institute met with the Ocean Conservancy two weeks ago, during their visit to Dayton, and realized we had a clean-up scheduled one week after their 24th annual ICC event, which takes place every third Saturday of September. The Ocean Conservancy was happy to include our clean-up and sent us data cards to fill out and submit for their annual report; the only statistical data distributed world-wide on marine debris and litter.
Our group of 20 volunteers collected over 12 bags of trash and became part of over 400,000 people, who all cleaned up litter on rivers and beaches around the world. Please take a minute to check out the Ocean Conservancy's website to learn more about the ICC and to watch the short youtube video on this year's clean up.
We are looking forward to being part of the ICC in the future and helping the Ocean Conservancy celebrate 25 years of cleaning up the world's waterways! A special thanks to Stewards, AJ Ferguson, Alex Galluzo, Dom Miller and Drew Morrison, for their time and effort spent on the clean-up....not to mention the two shopping carts Dom pulled out of the river!!!

Girls of Science at St. Albert Catholic School

Last Monday, some of our very own girls of science (Tracey Horan and Leslie King) were invited to share their enthusiasm for local geology with the Girls of Science Club at St. Albert the Great Catholic School. The club invites a different "girl of science" to share expertise and collaborate with the girls each month, and this particular month, the Rivers Institute was selected. About 15 middle school girls gathered after school to talk about water resources in the area, build a model aquifer together, learn about hypoxia, and then make posters to remind the rest of the school about the importance of water conservation. The girls were fascinated by the aspects of Dayton's water resources they had never heard of, asked great questions, and seemed excited to stump their science teachers with what they had learned! Another successful collaboration!

A little motivation

One man organized the planting of a billion trees in a single day.

And has provided for the future care of the trees.

And managed to employ 300k people living below the poverty line.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8257563.stm

Stews in the News

Theres going to be a Flyer News article about the recreational opportunities available through the metro parks. I'm pretty sure we are going to be mentioned.

Pictures from River Days

Great Miami River Days Festival!

This weekend the Rivers Stewards sponsored a booth at the Great Miami River Days Festival in Hamilton. River Days is one of the largest water education events in the country and shares many of the same initiative as the Rivers Institute. Visitors from around the region come to enjoy educational opportunities, historical re-enactments, water shows, hay rides, music and more.

The River Stewards created educational opportunities for children with several river game stations. Children could direct water through a maze to a treatment plan, fish for a fact, follow water molecules through the hydrological cycle or play with toys on the “water table.” The event was a huge success. The Stewards were able to interact with and teach little kids about the importance of the river. We look forward to participating again next year.

Special thanks to Tracey Horan for organizing the activities and to Leslie King, Gretchen Berkemeier, AJ Ferguson, Bethany Renner and McClean Johnson for their help making this event a success.

"Water is the foundation of life..." -Betsy Damon

Eco-artist Betsy Damon is on campus this week. She will be coming to the River Stewards mini-course on Friday to talk to the Stews about her work. Betsy seems to share a similar mindset that the Rivers Institute posesses. Betsy has said, "I believe that a group of committed people can address any challenge concerning water, and solve the difficulties in ways that respect the dynamic Universe and every individual. The key to our success is relationships!"

Here is a short bio about Betsy from her collaboration's website keepersofthewaters.org:

"At a crisis in her life thirty-five years ago, Betsy Damon turned to her dreams and visions as a source of imagery and action. Abandoning her traditional training, she initiated performance art projects creating temporary spaces for herself in public ‘unclaimed’ spots. Then, after a seven week cross country camping trip with her two children, Betsy found herself reconnected to primal elements in the natural world – the sound of wind, the flow of water, the forest, the rain.Rooted in the women’s movement of the 70’s, she founded a national network of support groups for women artists. Through the performance work and building of a network, she evolved numerous skills that began to understand the value of relationships as a foundation for initiating new forms. After casting 250’ of a dry river bed and committing herself to water as a central metaphor and theme for her life and work, she moved increasingly away from the artist as individual to the artist as central to community.Since the forming of Keepers of the Waters with the Humphrey Institute of the University of Minnesota in 1991, she moved increasingly towards creating community based models of her own unique vision. These works communicate the essence of water and inspire hope. She sculpts, she mentors, and she leads workshops and lectures. Her work in China includes the first public art event for the environment. The now world known Living Water Garden, numerous award winning master plans, city planning are all a part of her ongoing repertoire. In the U.S., she is no less productive with active green groups modeled from Keepers and public/private art commissions.Her inspiration comes from extensive research of sacred water sites and ever probing knowledge of biologic and earth sciences involved in living systems. Always seeking new ways to articulate the complexity of water and to engage everyone in caring for this precious resource, Betsy continues her passion" (keepersofthewaters.org).

Read more about Betsy:

http://www.bushfoundation.org/Publications/fellows_news_pdf/bushnewsautumn2000.pdf


LaChute River Walk "celebrates the extraordinary variety of industries that clustered around the waterfalls and rapids that punctuate the river's course through town" (prideofticonderoga.org)

What is Dayton did something like this? Would people appreciate our rivers more? Let's ask Betsy what she thinks!

Check out more information on the LaChute River Walk:
http://prideofticonderoga.org/pdfs/RiverwalkBro-Final-Inhouse2.pdf