A Successful Polar Bear Pickup

Well, the weather folks vastly underestimated the River Kids karma...it was a simply amazing day.  The sun stayed out, the temp stayed up, and approximately 75 volunteers worked together over the course of the day to clean up a huge section of North Riverfront Park...Overall, the event was an absolute success.

Thank you to everyone who showed up!  Given our numbers and the amount of trash we were able to pickup, the Polar Bear Pickup has established itself as the 4th biggest annual cleanup in the entire St. Louis Region...an impressive accomplishment no doubt!

Special thanks to Kylar Kennedy and the Polar Bear Pickup Committee for their leadership on this project.  Without their vision and effort, it wouldn't have come together the way it did.

Take care!

Ben

Polar Bear Pickup This Weekend

This is a reminder to some of you and news to others.  The River Kids are hosting a winter river cleanup along the Mississippi River at North Riverfront Park THIS SATURDAY!  You'll find a flyer attached with more of the details.

I've added a few of you to this particular mailing in hopes that at the very least you will find what the River Kids are doing this weekend interesting. And at most, I'm hoping you might want to join in and bring a few friends.

If you do want to attend and eat lunch, please send an email to River Kids at riverkids@newcityschool.org to let them know how many folks you are bringing and how many will be eating lunch.  Catering is by Orlando's and Ces and Judy's.

Spread the word!

See some of you soon!

Ben Griffiths
River Kids

Polar Bear Pickup Poster

Here's the poster for the Polar Bear Pickup in digital form, please forward it to whomever you'd like...we'd love to get as many people out as possible!

FYI - Michelle Zignago (NCS parent) designed this poster for us...I said "something wintery" and she came up with this...she's amazing...thank her if  you know her!

Ben

A Word From The Webmaster

So I realize that the title is kind of cheesy, but I'm going with it because there's really not much to say in this post that isn't related to the River Kids website.

My name is Jack Biggs and I've been running the RK website for a while, maybe 2 or 3 years. This website has been a way to check out the River Kids goings-on without having to be subscribed to the RK mailing list. But Ben and I agreed that it could be way more than that. Looking at Google Analytics, our site has about an 80% bounce rate, because the site isn't as attractive as we'd like, and the only information that appears on the page is about us, and we assume that the average visitor actually knows who we are.

Ben and I have started thinking about a new web site: something that pops a bit more, something that includes our usual pictures and videos, and something that can attract users and not scare them away by bombarding them with unnecessary information. Mind you, we'll still keep this blog open in an "updates" tab, so you won't be amiss there. But hopefully, if all goes well, we should be seeing a new home page rolled out soon.

It's really cool to see how far River Kids has come. This organization started off in the 2003-2004 school year with a bunch of 4th graders, and, me being one of them, I don't think we ever thought that this idea would take off as much as it has. It's been a pleasure working with you all, and I want to say that this never could have worked out the way it did if it wasn't for the energy that all of you past and present River Kids contributed! Give yourselves a pat on the back!

See you all next meeting,

Jack

Polar Bear Pickup

The Polar Bear Pickup is fast becoming a bigger cleanup than we'd ever hoped for... At this point it appears we may have volunteers from Americorps, Grace Hill, MO Stream Teams, Trailnet, Confluence Greenways and more...

Great news - Lunch and drinks will be catered (as a donation) by Orlando's and Ces and Judy's in combination!  It's awesome that they have stepped up to help River Kids out!  And big thanks to Giovanna Cassilly for helping make this happen!

If you have the time to come join us for even a short amount of time at the cleanup, please consider it.  This kind of event winds up being very good for the rivers, first of all...but also very good for our reputation in the river world.  It's important that we show up in force!

And whether you can make it or not, please spread the word about the event to as many NCS families as you can.  Flyers will be going up in the halls this week and information will go out in parent letters, but as you know, word of mouth will get more people interested than anything.  This could be a VERY fun event for NCS as a whole!

May the river be with you!  See you soon,

Ben

Mural

From the Leaders of the Mural Project:

Calling all RiverKids!
We need mural designs for the River Kids mural!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

These must be related (not obscurely to other viewers, i.e inside jokes, etc.) to River Kids, rivers, and so on.

Attached to the emails sent out (email another RK member!) is the form for mural designs.  Fill this out, and give this to Mary.

Requirements:

• Designs are due by next Wednesday
• Please give designs to Mary Welsh (sixth grade, Linda's advisory)
• Must be related to River Kids, rivers, etc (not obscure!!)
• Put your name on the back!

Get Cracking!!
-Mary, Laura, and Jessica

Polar Bear Pickup

RK Families,

I've been in contact with a few really good folks who are active along rivers in the area where we'll be focusing for our Polar Bear Pickup this year.  Without trying, I've managed to stir up a bit of interest in what we're doing.  It appears there may be quite a few people interested in joining us that day!

I should note here that I am aware of a basketball game in the afternoon on Feb 20, the date of the cleanup.  Unfortunately Mike cannot move the date easily and with all the other folks getting involved, I think we need to stick with the date that's been out there.  Our cleanup is scheduled from 9am-2pm, so it very well may be that the folks playing at 3pm could still participate for much of the morning.

As planned, we will have a group paddle with Mike out to Mosenthein Island where they will clean, have lunch together, and return across the river by 3pm.  It's my guess that there will be a limited number of seats in the canoes, so I will offer them up to those who reply first stating that they would like to paddle this day.  We'll try to get everyone in if possible. Paddlers must be at least 7 years old.  Winter paddling gear will be a necessity as always.

We will also need a crew to stay at the park and clean along the river there.  There is just as much trash there, so both groups will be busy. These folks may come and go at any time.  And all ages are welcome land-side.

We will also need some parents/kids to manage a table where volunteers may check in, get gloves, bags, and a t-shirt.  It appears, thanks to some swift work by one RK parent, that we may have lunch catered for the event.  I
should mention that the folks who paddle will still need to bring their own lunches.  Or they can eat leftovers when they get back. :)

Please let me know the following:

____ Please count my family in for the cleanup.  There will be ____ of us.

____ We want to paddle with Mike out to Mosenthein to clean.

____ We would prefer to stay on land and clean.

____ You may count on me to manage the check-in table for at least a part of the day.

____  Sorry, you'll have to count us out for this one.  But we'll be there in spirit.

Please spread the word about the cleanup.  We'll have flyers made soon and
will plan on sending out press releases closer to the date.

If you have any ideas for how you might be able add to this event or help in some way that hasn't occurred to me, please let me know.  Our event will be humble in comparison with the bigger cleanups in the area, but it will be bigger than most and should generate some real excitement amongst our crew, as well as some pride to know that a lot of people want to help out.

Go River Kids!

See you 'round,

Ben