Two Living Lands & Waters boats filled with trash pull in at a KTNRB cleanup held on Guntersvlile Lake in Scottsboro, Ala. in October 2021.
Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful (KTNRB) will kick off the ‘Tennessee River Grand Slam Cleanup Series presented by AFTCO,’ bringing four major cleanups held within three states.
The cleanup campaign is sponsored by The American Fishing Tackle Company (AFTCO), an outdoor apparel and tackle company that has both sponsored the series and equipped the KTNRB staff with seasonal apparel to stay clean, dry, and comfortable at cleanups through any weather.
Each cleanup in the Tennessee River Grand Slam Cleanup Series will be hosted at areas that have recently been affected by natural disasters:
Tennessee River Grand Slam Cleanup Series Schedule
· Saturday, March 26 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. | Iuka, MS | Pickwick Lake | Affected by flooding in 2019 & 2021
· Sunday, March 27 1:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. | Rogersville, AL | Wheeler Lake | Affected by an F-1 tornado in 2020
· Friday, April 8 | 1 p.m. – 5 p.m. | Waverly, TN | Kentucky Lake | Affected by deadly flooding in 2021
· Saturday, April 9 | 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. | Paris, TN | Kentucky Lake | Affected by 2021 floods
Volunteers pose with the KTNRB and LL&W boats filled with trash collected at a KTNRB cleanup held on Pickwick Lake in October 2020.
“Long after natural disasters pass through a community, the debris from the damage remains in our waterways, breaking down to cause issues for the health of our water source and the river’s ecosystem,” said Kathleen Gibi, Executive Director for Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful. “We’re grateful to AFTCO, the Tennessee Valley Authority, Tennessee Dept. of Transportation, our partners, and the volunteers for making it possible to restore these parts of the river to their beautiful, natural setting.”
KTNRB is following a record-breaking year in which more than 700 volunteers removed more than 152,000 lbs. of trash at 45 cleanups. Each cleanup in the Tennessee River Grand Slam Cleanup Series will be bolstered with the help of the national nonprofit, Living Lands & Waters (LL&W), who will bring their five 30-foot work boats to supplement KTNRB’s 26-foot work boat. In joining, LL&W will increase the volunteer capacity for each cleanup to 60, which is a number that can make a significant impact for the river.
“Clean water is critical to the health of our fisheries, and we're excited to take part in one of the many collective actions that we must all take to keep our waterways clean,” said Casey Shedd, President at AFTCO. “It's folks like the volunteers from Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful that inspired our ten percent pledge to protect and conserve, a pledge to donate ten percent of company profits to fishing conservation.”
The cleanup series is also supported by funding from TVA and TDOT’s ‘Nobody Trashes Tennessee’ litter prevention campaign. It’s also taking place during Keep America Beautiful’s Great American Cleanup©. Through this far-reaching annual effort, Keep America Beautiful local affiliates host cleanups in more than 20,000 communities, engaging over five million volunteers during the months of March and April.
Volunteers are still needed for each cleanup. To sign up for any of the Tennessee River Grand Slam Cleanup Series events, please visit www.KeepTNRiverBeautiful.org/upcomingcleanups. To see AFTCO’s web site, please visit www.aftco.com.