News

Every year, Sound Rivers recognizes quite a few partners in clean water, as a thank you for their efforts and dedication to our mission.

The awards are usually given out during the Sound Rivers’ spring board meeting, but this year, COVID-19 curtailed the gathering where the 2019 awards would have been announced. We’ve  decided to wrap things for up the year with scaled down, virtual and individual awards meetings, instead.

We appreciate all of our many volunteers and supporters, who help us keep our water swimmable, fishable and drinkable. Here are a few who’ve gone above and beyond for Sound Rivers, our mission and our waterways!

Volunteers of the Year

Sound Rivers’ Volunteers of the Year awards go to the outstanding volunteer within each of the Riverkeeper areas.

The 2019 Volunteers of the Year are Sue Ring, in New Bern, and Guy Blackwell, in Washington.

Sue Ring has been a fantastic and multi-functional volunteer and has supported the work of Sound Rivers by assisting on many sampling trips, helping with mailings and using her data analysis skills to create many graphs and turn our data into stories, according to Lower Neuse Riverkeeper Katy Hunt.

Guy Blackwell, a long-time volunteer, has lent his skills to many Sound Rivers’ projects over the years.

“Guy is our one-man boat repair shop. He has also worked many hours building picnic tables for the camping platforms and conducting repairs,” said Clay Barber, Sound Rivers’ environmental projects coordinator.