In The News

from The Telegraph
September 12, 2007

River festival coming Saturday
Event in Riverfront Park to promote conservation,
education and recreation

ALTON - Riverfront Park will be. the scene Saturday of the "It's Our River Day" festival, an event presented by Alton Marketplace and the Sierra Club to promote education, recreation and conservation of waterways.

The festival will run from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Sponsors will have booths on ecology, native plants and animals, recycling, nature arts and crafts and food vendors.

Live solar-powered folk and bluegrass music will be playing all day. The Alton Beautification & Clean City Committee is also organizing a litter cleanup around Riverfront Park and the levee trail, and Missouri River Relief will be ferrying volunteers by boat to islands and shorelines to pick up litter on the river."

Bike safety talks will be given by Wild Traks bikes, and 5-mile and 40-mile bike rides will depart .from the festival at 9 a.m. Wild Traks will have rental bicycles available, and Ciao Bella Scooters will have rental scooters available.

Children's activities will be offered by The Nature Institute, Jacoby Arts Center and Treehouse Wildlife Center, which will have live, rehabbed animals on hand.

Mineral Springs Haunted Tours will give "Haunted River" presentations, and representatives from the Alton Museum of History and Art will discuss the history of Alton's stretch of the Mississippi River.

Sheppard, Morgan and Schwaab engineering firm will set up a presentation about the riverfront redevelopment and answer questions about the timeline and specifics of the project.

It’s Our River Day is an initiative of Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn and is held annually on the third Saturday in September in river towns across the state. The event is in its fourth year, but this is the first year that Alton has participated on a large scale.

Sponsors include Alton Acoustic Arts, the Mississippi Half-Step Restaurant, ConAgra Foods, Norton and Rain Insurance, Alton Youth Development Strategy Partnership and American Water, which will have experts on hand to speak about water conservation and watersheds.

For more information, contact Sara McGibany at Alton Marketplace at 463­1016.

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