Do you love to play in the creeks and streams and lakes around here? We certainly do, and we want every stream, every creek, and all our lakes to be clean and healthy!
WaterWays envisions a future in which every child knows the beauty of their natural surroundings, every community takes part in stewardship, and every waterway thrives. Our mission is to lead community action to restore waterways and protect the local ecosystems on which we all depend. That means we need you to take action!
We are an organization of action. We make sure needed work in our watersheds is accomplished. But we can’t do it alone. We rely on our conservation partners, our community and municipalities, and individuals to help accomplish our goals of taking better care of our water resources.
Recently we rehabilitated canoe access at Camp Jordan to reduce erosion, thanks to help from our friends in the City of East Ridge and funding from the American Water Charitable Foundation. We also installed yet another litter trap, this one on Spring Creek; we already hauled out hundreds of pounds of trash and tires from the location behind 5090 South Furniture Store. The boom was sponsored by many, but primarily ASA Engineering and Terracon. That was also made possible by many volunteers, especially from Tennessee Valley Canoe Club!
Every year at our annual fun fundraising event, now called Save Water Soiree, we like to recognize people through our Big Splash Awards. We want to bring attention to folks who are doing great work for our water resources and to volunteers who make that work possible. This year was no exception! We received some incredible nominations for the awards, particularly the Corporate Water Champion!
Corporate Water Champion
There were so many good nominations this year that it was difficult to choose … but congratulations to iFixit Chattanooga!
iFixit opened its Chattanooga campus in 2024, bringing their right-to-repair ethos to the National Park City. This company is leading the way in reversing the trend of our throw-away society by helping others repair broken electronics and more and therefore keeping them out of the landfill.
A vacant building has been transformed it into a modern distribution and light assembly warehouse. Because of the company’s sustainability features, it has lower electrical costs and even recycles even the cooling water! This company’s landscape plan also reduces stormwater runoff and decreases the urban heat island effect through its thoughtful and well-intentioned plantings. iFixit is proving that urban industrial sites can be Rain Smart! Thank you for all you do, Luke Soules and iFixit!
Community Water Champions
Our Community Water Champions make amazing contributions to protecting our local waterways. Steve and Karen Persinger of Rising Fawn Gardens are our Community Water Champions! They protect over 1,700 acres and four creek miles of Lookout Creek, adding conservation easements as they add property. With their latest property acquisition, they have closed the gap and have created a wildlife and biodiversity corridor from Rising Fawn, through Cloudland Canyon and all the way to Lula Lake. It is unheard of in these days to be able to create such an unbroken protected corridor and to connect the Lookout Creek watershed to the Chattanooga Creek watershed. Three cheers to Karen and Steve!
Volunteer Water Champions
We actually have two volunteers of the year this year! WaterWays’ work is made possible by so many community volunteers, like many of the folks who helped with our Save Water Soiree. We appreciate each and every person who helps!
Our first Volunteer of the Year is always available (when not out hiking or bird watching) to help with our stream restoration projects. Kudzu and privet are his nemesis plants! We have made so much progress on Stringers Branch and Mountain Creek this year fighting invasive species, and Don McKenzie has been right there with us every step of the way. Thank you, Don!
Our final award goes to someone who can be found everywhere! She loves the annual Bonnaroo Cleanup! She organizes the give-back days with Belk, helps with education field trips and connects us to PR opportunities. She was the star of the silent auction prep! You might not notice her because she is always on the move, and we love her volunteerism. We couldn’t do what we do without volunteers like Debbie Fassino! Thank you, Debbie!
If you are interested in our work or volunteering, check us out at mywaterways.org or email [email protected].
by Mary Beth Sutton
Founder and Director of WaterWays
WaterWays envisions a future in which every child knows the beauty of their natural surroundings, every community takes part in stewardship, and every waterway thrives. Our mission is to lead community action to restore waterways and protect the local ecosystems on which we all depend. That means we need you to take action!
We are an organization of action. We make sure needed work in our watersheds is accomplished. But we can’t do it alone. We rely on our conservation partners, our community and municipalities, and individuals to help accomplish our goals of taking better care of our water resources.
Recently we rehabilitated canoe access at Camp Jordan to reduce erosion, thanks to help from our friends in the City of East Ridge and funding from the American Water Charitable Foundation. We also installed yet another litter trap, this one on Spring Creek; we already hauled out hundreds of pounds of trash and tires from the location behind 5090 South Furniture Store. The boom was sponsored by many, but primarily ASA Engineering and Terracon. That was also made possible by many volunteers, especially from Tennessee Valley Canoe Club!
Every year at our annual fun fundraising event, now called Save Water Soiree, we like to recognize people through our Big Splash Awards. We want to bring attention to folks who are doing great work for our water resources and to volunteers who make that work possible. This year was no exception! We received some incredible nominations for the awards, particularly the Corporate Water Champion!
Corporate Water Champion
There were so many good nominations this year that it was difficult to choose … but congratulations to iFixit Chattanooga!
iFixit opened its Chattanooga campus in 2024, bringing their right-to-repair ethos to the National Park City. This company is leading the way in reversing the trend of our throw-away society by helping others repair broken electronics and more and therefore keeping them out of the landfill.
A vacant building has been transformed it into a modern distribution and light assembly warehouse. Because of the company’s sustainability features, it has lower electrical costs and even recycles even the cooling water! This company’s landscape plan also reduces stormwater runoff and decreases the urban heat island effect through its thoughtful and well-intentioned plantings. iFixit is proving that urban industrial sites can be Rain Smart! Thank you for all you do, Luke Soules and iFixit!
Community Water Champions
Our Community Water Champions make amazing contributions to protecting our local waterways. Steve and Karen Persinger of Rising Fawn Gardens are our Community Water Champions! They protect over 1,700 acres and four creek miles of Lookout Creek, adding conservation easements as they add property. With their latest property acquisition, they have closed the gap and have created a wildlife and biodiversity corridor from Rising Fawn, through Cloudland Canyon and all the way to Lula Lake. It is unheard of in these days to be able to create such an unbroken protected corridor and to connect the Lookout Creek watershed to the Chattanooga Creek watershed. Three cheers to Karen and Steve!
Volunteer Water Champions
We actually have two volunteers of the year this year! WaterWays’ work is made possible by so many community volunteers, like many of the folks who helped with our Save Water Soiree. We appreciate each and every person who helps!
Our first Volunteer of the Year is always available (when not out hiking or bird watching) to help with our stream restoration projects. Kudzu and privet are his nemesis plants! We have made so much progress on Stringers Branch and Mountain Creek this year fighting invasive species, and Don McKenzie has been right there with us every step of the way. Thank you, Don!
Our final award goes to someone who can be found everywhere! She loves the annual Bonnaroo Cleanup! She organizes the give-back days with Belk, helps with education field trips and connects us to PR opportunities. She was the star of the silent auction prep! You might not notice her because she is always on the move, and we love her volunteerism. We couldn’t do what we do without volunteers like Debbie Fassino! Thank you, Debbie!
If you are interested in our work or volunteering, check us out at mywaterways.org or email [email protected].
by Mary Beth Sutton
Founder and Director of WaterWays
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