The 15th annual Illinois River Sweep was held in Peoria on Sept. 21. Over a 100 volunteers, took to the river banks to collect trash and debris to keep the river clean.<\/p>\n
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Citizens take action to clean Illinois River banks<\/strong><\/p>\n By Alex Ross<\/p>\n Paul Johnson has enjoyed the beauty of the Illinois River for most of his life.<\/p>\n At a young age, his father would take him fishing and boating on the river, leaving a lasting impact on him. Johnson\u2019s love for the river brought him to the 15th annual Illinois River Sweep on Sept. 21.<\/p>\n \u201cIt may not be the nicest river in the world, but I\u2019ve loved it since I was a little kid,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cI\u2019ve had so much fun fishing with my dad and brothers, I feel the need to give back. It appalls me the amount of trash and debris that ends up out here. I wish people would have more respect for the environment and realize how luck we are to have this river in our back yard.\u201d<\/p>\n Over 100 volunteers participated for three hours cleaning the banks near popular riverside areas like Detweiller Marina, Constitution Gardens and Riverfront Park. It was one of the largest turnouts in the event\u2019s history. The volunteers were divided into eight groups and worked to clean the length of shoreline they were assigned.<\/p>\n Johnson\u2019s group was assigned to Detweiller Marina. He specifically requested being out there because it is where one of his favorite fishing spots is located.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I first started coming out here [Detweiller Marina] as a kid, there wasn\u2019t much trash and not too many people knew about the spot,\u201d he said. \u201cBut in the last few years more and more people have started coming out here and with it the amount of trash has grown.\u201d<\/p>\n Johnson has been participating in the Illinois River Sweep for the last five years and is no longer surprised by what he finds. There\u2019s the usual trash and debris like beer cans and bottles as well as \u201cfishing\u201d garbage. But the crews have also found old metal chairs, an abandoned mini fridge and lots of car tires.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople think they can leave their trash anywhere,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cWhat they don\u2019t realize is the effect it has on the river. You wouldn\u2019t believe the kind of stuff we have found out here. I wish I knew what people were thinking. You don\u2019t just accidently forget about a mini fridge. You have to purposely leave it out here.\u201d<\/p>\n Johnson said the event is a good bonding experience for people who love the river like he does. He said they all want to be able to enjoy the river and keep it clean so future generations can do the same.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s good to see so many young people out here,\u201d he said. \u201cIt shows me that the younger generation cares about the river as much as us old guys. It\u2019s important that we keep the Illinois [river] clean so the generations after us can enjoy it just like we do. As long as the river sweep continues, I\u2019ll be out here every year. It\u2019s really, really important to me.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Major attractions along Illinois River<\/strong><\/p>\n The Illinois River Road National Scenic Byway ties together more than 100 attractions along the Illinois River Valley. So what are some of the best?<\/p>\n https:\/\/mapsengine.google.com\/map\/edit?mid=z_TX9tVT2GpQ.kiDRrZSxqHV0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The 15th annual Illinois River Sweep was held in Peoria on Sept. 21. Over a 100 volunteers, took to the river banks to collect trash and debris to keep the river clean.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[49,34,48,35],"class_list":["post-122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-general","tag-clean-river","tag-com425","tag-illinois-river-sweep","tag-mm1","post_format-post-format-link"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions\/123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/com.bradley.edu\/newslab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}