The Clean Water Celebration is an annual event honoring Illinois' rivers and water. Students, teachers, and resource personnel from Illinois and neighboring states have come together since 1990 to attend work shops, make presentations on local rivers and water projects, network with other river stewards, learn about current water issues, and share common interests. One can see travelling shows and exhibits, school booths, demonstrations, hands-on science activities, theatre, art, and music.

The 2003 Clean Water Celebration features:

• The International Crane Foundation at Baraboo, WI will bring its experience at promoting teaching, learning, and caring for the Sandhill and Whooping cranes and their environment. http://www.savingcran es.org Dietrich Schaaf will be the featured speaker.

• Presentation stations are in their second year, and they are designed to give participating teachers and their classes more substance and science content, as requested through their evaluations.Each teacher will be able to take their class to a "stream" of four fifteen-minute presentations on the subjects of WATERSHEDS, WATERFOWL, AQUATIC LIFE, AND DRINKING WATER.To accommodate the thousands of students, we will be running these stations continuously from 9 AM to 2 PM.Depending on the teacher signup, there will be from four to six of these "streams"and each will have all four presentations.

• Pekin High School will offer training sessions in simple water testing and screening procedures

• Barb O’Meara and Jack Swanson of the Illinois Dept. of Public Health will tell us about the West Nile Virus and Mosquitoes: What can we do at home to help?

• Steve Havera of the Illinois Natural History Survey will begin each opening session with information on the Illinois River Flyway.

• Marge Bjorklund of the Lakewood Museum will share her work with wild birds that she is rehabilitating from the Illinois River Valley

• Brian "Fox" Ellis, singer and folktale-teller entertains and enchants with stories of the ornithologist, John James Audubon

• Wildlife Prairie will share information on bird behavior and will bring an eagle.

• Forest Park Nature Center’s Discovery Room will fascinate students.

• Glen Oak Zoo will offer “What’s Below the Surface of the Water” where you can learn how to sample for water quality.

• Come be inside the 22 foot Earth Balloon

• Jo Lakota, Peoria’s principal Native American Story Teller, will engage students in water and wildlife tales

• Jonnie Wilson of the US EPA will show how to identify recorded chemical releases by zip code.

• The First River Trivia event will take place on Monday Morning and is sponsored by the Illinois Nature Conservancy.

• Over 100 exhibits and presentations will be offered to the more than 3000 who will attend

The Clean Water Celebration is sponsored, in part, by the following groups:
Illinois American Water Company
Illinois Department of Natural Resources
Illinois Environmental Protection Agency
The Sun Foundation
The Rivers Project
Caterpillar
ISAWWA
Williams Ethanol
Audubon Society

Grants have been received from the following:
Bielfeldt Foundation
Central Regional Groundwater Protection Committee
Illinois Department of Tourism
Peoria Community Foundation
Peoria County Solid Waste
Tazewell County Superintendent of Schools
Tazewell County Health Department

The 2003 Clean Water Celebration will be held March 24th at the Peoria Civic Center in Peoria, IL. For information and reservations, contact Pat Welch at 309-925-5511 ext. 227 or Sue Atherton at 309-671-3701 ext.124.