Political Quotes

“today I wish to honor the outstanding work of a great Illinoisan, Chad Pregracke, who has just been named a 2013 CNN Hero. A native of East Moline, IL, Chad grew up knowing how important the Mississippi River was to his community. He spent a lot of time on the river with his parents, KeeKee and Gary, and his older brother Brent. Chad saw how badly the river was being polluted and knew something had to be done. When no one else stepped up, he decided he would. In 1997, he received a small grant and spent that summer cleaning up part of the river on his own, sorting through the trash on his parents' front lawn. In 1998, when he was just 23 years old, Chad founded his own non- profit--Living Lands & Waters. The venture has now grown to a full staff and fleet of barges. Living Lands & Waters relies on teams of volunteers throughout the Nation, with a heavy focus on the Mississippi, Illinois and Ohio River regions. Living Lands & Waters organizes about 70 cleanups a year in 50 different communities. Chad estimates that his group has worked with about 70,000 volunteers to remove more than 7 million pounds of trash from the Nation's waterways. Among the trash they have pulled from river are more than 67,000 tires, 218 washing machines and four pianos. Not all of their finds are the size of pianos. Chad boasts an extensive collection of messages in bottles he has found over the years.…”