Good work deserves recognition.

2008 Annual Meeting

A capacity crowd attended our 2008 Annual Meeting, held January 10 in the Holliday Park Nature Center. We elected our 2008 Board of Directors, and reported on group activities during 2007 (as detailed in A Busy Season of Service, PDF, 3.2 MB) and outlined plans for 2008. Our Youth Advisory Council also made its first public presentation.

We also presented the 2007 Youth Recruitment Initiatives Award to Butler University for involving faculty and staff in its new Adopt-A-River cleanup program.

From left: Friends founder Karl Glander and board member Neil Myers, both Butler alumns, presented the award to Butler biology Professor Bob Holm and student and YAC member Nicole Dores.

 

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2007 Annual Meeting

Our 2007 Annual Meeting, held January 10 in the Holliday Park Nature Center, drew a crowd of about 100 people for business, pleasure and prizes. We elected our 2007 Board of Directors, and reported on group activities for 2006 and plans for 2007.

And to honor extraordinary efforts on behalf of White River during 2006 (and earlier) by three groups and one individual, we gave unique paddle plaques.

Featured speaker

“Millions of people cross bridges each day with no idea of the adventure, power, and magic that a river offers,” says Jerry Hay, author of Beyond the Bridges, a compendium of “river stories, history and practical information.”

Hay, who has traveled the entire length of nearly every major river east of the Rocky Mountains, recited stories and described how he writes his books, including the children’s book titled Gilligan Goose, which is based on a true story.

Jerry Hay recently retired from his position of Riverlorian for Delta Queen Steamboats of New Orleans and is working on a guide book for the Ohio River.

Hay has a long history with rivers. In 1962, at the age of 15, he set out alone in a canoe and paddled 200 miles of the Wabash. During high school and college, most of his studying was done along the banks of the river. In 1992 he again canoed the Wabash, this time paddling its entire 500 miles. In 1995, he and two friends were the first to ever navigate the entire river in a powerboat. The maps, logs, photos, and journals that he compiled became the well-known Wabash River GuideBook, first published in 1997. In 2002, Hay completed the White River GuideBook, which is a comprehensive guide to the entire East and West Forks of Indiana’s White River.