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IECA Environmental Connection

EC08 General Session

EC08 Keynote Speaker

Helping to Clean America’s Rivers

During his hour-long talk, Chad takes the audience out on one of the world’s greatest rivers – a journey filled with lively characters, colorful places and gripping adventures. His delivery is refreshingly spontaneous and genuine.

As the founder of America’s only “industrial strength” river clean-up organization, Chad tells a compelling and funny story about growing up on the river and how his river experiences led to his unique vision to clean up the Mississippi River.

From the darkness of underwater shell-diving to the brightness of open-air community clean-ups, Chad’s tale embodies the importance of setting goals (one river and one piece of garbage at a time) and illustrates how determined hard-work and persistence pays off.

The river environment is relentlessly real and Chad brings the same up-front honesty to his presentation. Chad’s sincere enthusiasm is an uplifting wave as he relates his personal conviction to clean America’s rivers.

Chad Pregracke

Taking care to let others know how much he appreciates their good work, volunteer efforts, in-kind contributions and monetary donations is just a natural part of Chad Pregracke engaging personality. Chad raises the bar on leadership, motivating others through his infectious positive outlook and incomparable sense of humor. Founder & President of Living Lands & Waters, Chad Pregracke, is living, breathing proof that one person can make a difference.

The Mississippi River was literally Chad’s back yard while he was growing up. The son of educators and river enthusiasts, KeeKee and Gary Pregracke, he spent the majority of his time on, in, and around the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers.

While attending high school and college he worked as a commercial shell diver, a commercial fisherman, and barge hand during the summers. He sometimes lived on the islands of the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers during that time. While there, he noticed that the condition of the rivers was getting worse due to the accumulation of trash on the shorelines. Based on his concern, while still in college, he set out in the spring of 1997 to make a difference... one river at a time…one piece of garbage at a time.

In 1998, he founded Living Lands & Waters, the not-for-profit environmental organization based in East Moline, Illinois. Today, there are several employees and a fleet of several barges and workboats. Thousands of volunteers have cooperated to help with the community cleanups, Riverbottom Forest Restoration and Adopt-a-Mississippi River Mile programs. Chad's project has been filmed by many of the major networks including PBS and featured in numerous national and international magazines including Outside, Readers Digest, Smithsonian, and others.

In June of 2002, Chad accepted the Jefferson Award for Public Service in the United States Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. The Jefferson Award is America’s version of the Nobel Prize for Public Service. In addition to Chad, the other national winners in 2002 were Rudolph Giuliani, Bill and Melinda Gates, and Lilly Tartikoff. In August 2002, Chad was invited by the Coca-Cola Company to attend the World Summit on Sustainable Environments in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Chad received an honorary doctorate for his work in education and the environment in May of 2003 from St. Ambrose University, Davenport, Iowa. In October, the Manhattan Institute of Public Policy awarded Chad the 2003 Social Entrepreneurship Award for his efforts in bringing together thousands of volunteers that helped clean up America’s rivers.