Nationally recognized, Chad Pregracke

Founder and President of Living Lands and Waters from East Moline, Illinois. Author of From the Bottom Up: One Man’s Crusade to Clean America’s Rivers.

As the founder of America’s only "industrial strength" river clean-up organization, Living Lands & Waters (http://www.lininglandsandwaters.org/) nationally recognized, Chad Pregracke, 32, 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.

Chad has been the recipient of more than 40 awards, including the Jefferson Award for Public Service presented to him in June of 2002 in the United States Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.  Chad accepted that award along with Rudolph Giuliani, Bill and Melinda Gates, and Lilly Tartikoff.  In August of 2002, Chad was invited by the Coca-Cola Company to attend the World Summit on Sustainable Environments in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he met and shared information about his river cleanup projects with people from all over the world.  Since then, Chad’s major projects have been filmed by many of the major networks such as CNN, Today Show, CBS Sunday Morning Show, NBC Nightly News, MTV, PBS, and the list goes on.  Time, People Magazine, Reader’s Digest, Life, Outside, Smithsonian, and National Geographic are among the numerous publications in which Chad has been featured.

During his 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 motivating, educating, compelling, stimulating, captivating, refreshingly spontaneous and genuine.

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 and illustrates how determind hard-work and persistence pays off.

Chad will leave his audience knowing that each one of us makes a difference; he empowers the audience with his fascinating story and genuine compassion to make a difference.

Chad’s book, From the Bottom Up: One Man’s Crusade to Clean America’s Rivers, is now available for sale at the HWS College Store and will be sold during the event on Nov. 8th.

This event is free and open to the public. Refreshments provided.