River Kids - Get With The Flow!

Support River Kids Please support these amazing kids and their mission to clean, protect and preserve St. Louis area waterways by making an online donation today. We greatly appreciate it!

River Kids is a fast-moving group of motivated 4th-6th graders who want to help clean, protect, and preserve St. Louis’ many precious waterways. Among other things, members get the opportunity to run committees on fundraising and public relations, help organize and participate in river cleanups, develop educational materials and distribute them, plan river-friendly events, or even serve as a Board Member and help decide about the future of this growing organization.

In Depth on the River Kids:

River Kids receives not-for-profit status as a program provided through New City School and is designed to provide kids with a rare opportunity to take action on what is recognized as a nationally significant issue. Though there are many organizations like ours out there with similar goals, ours is the only one we know of developed and managed by kids. Last year’s list of accomplishments includes highlights such as a large-scale tree-planting in coordination with the Missouri Dept. of Natural Resources, the operation of an educational booth in Forest Park as part of Earth Day festivities, participation in local river cleanups within the River des Peres watershed, raising money for our organization through sales of River Kids merchandise, the artistic development of a new banner, and the development of our own cleanup held along a local section of the River des Peres. Similar activities are happening once again this year, with additional plans for the formation of a Stream Team, the development of a benefit dinner to support the River des Peres Watershed Coalition, a weekend float trip/Cleanup on the Meramec River, and a new connection with current New City friends Curt Carter and his crew from Land for Learning, the same group that works with New City 6th graders on their fall camping trip. We also expect to have guest speakers from the river-friendly community join us at various meetings this year. All in all, this should prove to be our most active year yet!

The Nitty Gritty:

- 45 kids (4th-6th Grades)
- Regular meetings twice a month
- Additional meetings related to prep for big events
- 3-Part Mission –

• Learn about rivers and associated issues
• Teach others about these issues/solutions
• Take Action/Clean the Rivers

- We participate in river Cleanups and other river-related events whenever possible --

• Annual River des Peres Watershed Coalition Cleanup
• Annual Fall Tree planting at the Confluence
• Earth Day Festival – Educational Booth
• Educational Festivals/Activities around town
• LL&W Cleanup

- We host our own events annually --

• Spring Cleanup and Honeysuckle removal on RdP
• Benefit Dinner
• Education Festival at New City
• Spring Canoe Trip

Current Events: 

RK Mentoring Program – The concept is to connect city youth, who might not normally get the opportunity, with rivers. Eight River Kids are partnering with eight girls from a local after-school program called Neighborhood Houses to establish personal connections, build leadership/teaming skills, and explore the outdoors together. Land for Learning, a professional non-profit outdoor education company has trained participating River Kids as mentors and will be facilitating certain activities, including the culminating camping/canoeing trip along the Meremac River.

Rain Harvesting Project at New City School – This group has handled the research and development of a new rain harvesting system in coordination with the NCS Building and Grounds Committee.

Riverfront Mural Project – This group has developed a plan for a 120-foot mural interpreting the history and culture surrounding rivers in St. Louis to be installed upon the floodwall above the parking lot at the start of the Riverfront Trail by the Laclede Power Building. This mural will greet visitors near the huge Riverview Park being developed by Confluence Greenway. City officials have given their approval to the plan and appropriate permits are being acquired. Painting is scheduled to begin in mid-April.

Save Herbie Jr. Group – This group has worked for 5 months to get a VW Beetle they found in the River des Peres turned into an art installation that will be housed at the City Museum in St. Louis. They are in the last stages of planning the art and will be actually participating in the installation in March.

4th Grade RK Tree Planting at the Confluence – In the past four years, 4th grade groups have managed to plant over 1,000 trees total. We will once again return to the Confluence in the fall. This is currently only for 4th graders.

St. Louis Earth Day Festival Booth – River Kids will provide educational activities to promote a greater understanding of and appreciation for issues currently affecting our world’s rivers.

River Kids Dinner to Benefit Land for Learning - Based on last year’s success, River Kids has doubled the size of this event to seat 300 for dinner. The family-friendly event, titled “Willy Wonka’s Wonderland,” takes place at the City Museum on April 25. Planning and execution of this complex event requires that each member serve on one of three planning committees: Food/Decorations, Public Relations/Ticket Sales, Entertainment. The kids actually carry out necessary tasks, such as calling and hiring a caterer, choosing entertainment, designing flyers and recruiting donors.

River Kids Music – Last year RK members wrote and recorded an original song about the rivers. We have written a new song and will be recording these and other river-related songs onto one larger CD for duplication. Local folk singer and guitarist Curt Carter will be playing on the recording.

H2O Rap Performance – Some River Kids will be working with Joan Lipkin and the Uppity Theater Company to develop an original professional-grade musical performance about water conservation. This play will be performed at the St. Louis Earth Day Festival and Water Symposium, as well as at New City School.

New T-Shirt Design – These kids took ideas from the others and designed a new t-shirt for production in March.

Merchandising Group – This group develops ideas for fundraising merchandise and monitors inventory. We currently sell River Kids wristbands, stickers, buttons, t-shirts, water bottles, dry bags, and pens.

Web Design Group – This small group is in charge of designing a new website to achieve three central purposes: education, communication, and fundraising. The current webpage has been updated already thanks to this crew.

Virtual River Kids – Using Second Life software, River Kids have developed their own virtual online organization serving the same purposes as the original.

Future Projects

Green Roof Project – River Kids will be working with the Building and Grounds Committee at New City School to develop a plan for installing a green roof. Early planning/discussion is underway.

Fall River Education Festival (2008) – River Kids will offer assistance to MO River Relief in its pursuit to develop a new River Education Festival for the fall of 2008. They will generate ideas and sponsor portions of the event. 

Other River Kids Updates:

New Information coming soon!

E-mail us at riverkids@newcityschool.org for additional information.