Paddle With Purpose River Voyages

Gary, Linda, Dave, Mark, Joe, Aaron At Joint Expo, Dave reminded us of the MWEA Section 11 meeting coming up at the Anthony Ragnone Treatment Plant . Section 11 is a big supporter of Water For People. We needed to thank them for their generous donation to our 2018 Missouri River Voyage so we made the drive to Montrose. After an excellent plant tour by Aaron and an educational technical meeting for the operators and students present, we had a few minutes to talk about how thrilled we were to have had their support. Well they wanted to do it again and they are all in. It was a short business meeting and when all was said and done, Section 11 decided to kick in $2,000! Next time, we will buy the pizza! To see all our Suwannee River Voyage donors and the funds raised to date, click here . You will not find a better group of professionals in Michigan than our friends in MWEA Section 11. They chose to put some of their hard earned dollars into Water For People. Their generosity will ...

Joel, Jeff, Josh, Linda and Gary A big Thank You! to Allison and the MWEA staff for letting the Water For People (WFP) Committee share their space at the 2020 Joint Expo and Operators Day. Joint Expo is co-presented by the Michigan Section of AWWA and the Michigan Water Environment Association. The Lansing Center was overflowing both days, Feb. 4-5, and many stopped at our booth. Our display featured literature on the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) work done by Water For People in nine countries around the world. We had WASH related gifts for over 200 people who donated a dollar and spun the prize wheel. We also managed to fit a 17 and a half foot canoe into our space. This is the Northstar canoe that will travel 684 miles on this year's Suwannee River Voyage. Complete with an inflatable alligator and plastic snakes, the canoe is ready to go come April 2. Some people thought the canoe was a prize when they spun the prize wheel but were quickly informed that, if that w...

Spillway into wetland After a month of flying over Florida (via Google Maps), we found the perfect spot to end our Suwannee River Voyage. The goal was to end as close to Orlando as possible in order to connect our fundraising for Water For People to members of AWWA who plan to attend their annual conference, ACE20. The perfect spot turned out to be the Orlando Wetlands Park , a man-made wetland designed to provide advanced treatment for reclaimed water from the City of Orlando and other local cities. The Park is 1650 acres in size and located in Christmas, Florida. Ending in Christmas is just a bonus. We will be paddling up the St. Johns River which is separated from the Orlando Wetlands Park by a 2 mile section of the Florida National Scenic Trail. The trail runs through the Seminole Ranch Wildlife Management Area which is managed in cooperation with the St. Johns River Water Management District. Gary will be right at home here since he used to work at the Muskegon County ...

Wisconsin River 2017 The World's Largest Paddlesport Expo, Canoecopia, has released the schedule for their 2020 event and we now know when we will be speaking. This will be our first time presenting at the Madison, WI event and there will be 197 other presentations on canoeing and camping. We are lucky to have been assigned to one of the big rooms. In fact, we have been chosen to speak twice, on both Friday and Sunday. Your first chance to hear Five Rivers Voyage: Rediscovering the Midwest by Canoe will be Friday, March 13, 2020, at 6:30 PM. If that one is standing room only, come back on Sunday at 2:30 PM. We will tell the story of the 1,176 mile voyage that took us from Michigan's upper peninsula to downtown Chicago in 51 days. Our friends came up with $13,000 for Water For People in support of that voyage back in 2017. While at the show, we will be able to pick up some replacements for worn out gear prior to the Suwannee River Voyage. One priority will be to ge...