A grant from The Captain Planet Foundation will provide a limited number of scholarships for educators in Georgia to participate in Georgia River Network’s Paddle Georgia 2014 — America’s largest week-long canoe/kayak camping adventure. Selected teachers will also receive environmental education training for free.
The Captain Planet Foundation is an international environmental education foundation for youth, based on the successful Captain Planet cartoon.
Paddle Georgia is an annual week-long canoe and kayak journey that takes place on a different Georgia river each year. This June, the event will celebrate its 1oth anniversary by returning to the Chattahoochee where it was first held in 2005. In the event’s first nine years, Georgia River Network has guided more than 2800 people down 12 Georgia rivers and generated more than $180,000 for river protection.
“We are thrilled to present this award to Georgia River Network,” says Leesa Carter, Executive Director of the Foundation. “We receive hundreds of submissions each year and have to be very selective to whom we award funding. This is one of the few projects from across the country that we chose to fund. We wish the “Empowering Educators to Paddle Georgia” program great success as they work to implement this important project. It is our hope that our combined efforts will educate, empower, involve and invest today’s youth to cultivate a better tomorrow.”
Georgia River Network’s “Empowering Educators to Paddle Georgia” program will offer a dozen complimentary registrations for the event, which begins June 21st on the Chattahoochee River below Buford Dam in Cumming and ends June 27th, 115 miles downstream in the town of Franklin.
During the week, representatives from the National Parks Service, Cobb County’s Watershed Stewardship Program and Georgia Adopt-A-Stream will lead the teachers in workshops covering environmental education curriculum and stream monitoring.
“The goal of the program is to have teachers use their experiences on the river and in the workshops to incorporate environmental education in their classrooms,” said Jennifer McCoy with Cobb County’s Watershed Stewardship Program.
Georgia educators in grades K-12 are eligible to apply for the scholarships, which must be received by April 1, 2014. Winners of the scholarships will be announced April 20th.
The 2014 edition of Paddle Georgia will introduce paddlers to the Chattahoochee River as it courses through metro Atlanta—from its northern suburbs in Forsyth, Cobb, and Fulton Counties and the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area – to the river’s rural haunts in south Fulton, Douglas, Coweta, Carroll and Heard counties.
Daily paddle trips will average about 16 miles, and each night participants will camp at nearby facilities such as schools and parks. In addition to spending each day on the river, paddlers will have the opportunity to explore everything from historic sites to water treatment facilities.
“The trip is much more than just a paddle,” said Joe Cook, event coordinator, “The goal is to show people not only the river’s beauty but also how we use and depend on the river for everything from our drinking water to producing electricity. It’s an educational adventure.”
Click Here for Paddle Georgia
Georgia River Network
Georgia River Network is a non-profit organization working to ensure a clean water legacy by engaging and empowering Georgians to protect, restore and enjoy our rivers from the mountains to the coast.
Captain Planet Foundation
Founded in 1991, the Captain Planet Foundation was created to support hands-on, environmental projects for youth. CPF’s objective is to encourage innovative projects that empower today’s children to become environmental stewards. For more information, visit www.captainplanetfdn.org.
Sponsors of the event include: Georgia Power; Columbia Sportswear; Patagonia; Captain Planet Foundation; Hennessey Land Rover; Len Foote Hike Inn; Cary S. Baxter, CPA, LLC; The Outside World; StreamTechs; Sweetwater Pools; Cedar Creek RV & Outdoor Center; AGL Resources; China Clay Producers Association; Chris Shiver – PE, LLC; New Belgium Brewing Co.; and The RainBarrel Depot. Paddle Georgia Partners include Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, Georgia Canoe Association, Georgia Adopt-A-Stream, Project Wet, National Park Service-Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, and Cobb County Water System.
