Members from the New Franklin High School girls and boys basketball teams, as well as students from teacher Erich Gerding’s modern nonfiction class, joined members of the Missouri River Relief for a cleanup of the Missouri River at Franklin Island on Monday, May 5.

The clean-up was planned after Gerding’s  class read the book  From the Bottom Up: One Man’s Crusade to Clean America’s Rivers by Chad Pregracke.

Pregracke’s book is about his journey cleaning up America’s rivers one tire at a time. The book shares his personal story and the beginning of his grassroots organization, Living Lands and Waters, which has motivated thousands of people across the country to clean up the country’s rivers and waterways.

“The best way to learn is through first-hand experience, so I thought it would be a good idea for the kids to get outside to experience the river that feeds the bottomlands throughout the area and is a vital transportation and recreational waterway in the United States,” said Gerding.

For the rest of the story, see the Thursday, May 8 print edition of the BDN.