Skip to main content

Media & Events

Awards & Honors

AWARDS & HONORS

The LL&W crew has worked hard cleaning up America’s rivers for the past 20+ years and we are grateful - and often humbled - to be recognized for it.

  • 2019
    2019
    • Chad Pregracke was presented with the Stroud Award for Freshwater Excellence in recognition of his dedication and determination to protect freshwater.
  • 2018
    2018
    • Charity Navigator 4-Star - Living Lands & Waters was awarded a 4-star rating by  Charity Navigator for the 8th consecutive year. Only 3% of reviewed charities have been able to accomplish this. Our rating means that we're accountable, transparent and financially healthy.
    • Awarded "Mayor's Choice" at the East Moline 4th of July Parade for "Garbage Monster" parade float entry.
    • Awarded "Mayor's Choice" at the Davenport Halloween Parade for "Garbage Monster" parade float entry.

     

  • 2017
    2017
    • Duke of Paducah – Chad Pregracke was named Duke of Paducah by Mayor Brandi Harless – December 7, 2017
    • 2017 Golden Glow Awards – The Association of Great Lakes Outdoor Writers (AGLOW) awarded its highest honor to three recipients at its recent annual conference at Lake of the Woods, Minnesota.  Golden Glow Awards were presented in the Excellence-In-Craft, Organization, and Individual categories during the Clam Outdoors Golden Glow Banquet at the Sportsman’s Lodge – September 27, 2017 – Click for more information.
    • Outstanding Community Service – The State of California Senate presented this certificate of recognition in honor of “Outstanding Community Service – In special recognition of your unyielding commitment and dedication to the betterment of our community and for your exemplary leadership and advocacy effort as founder of Living Lands & Waters.” Signed by Senator Joel Anderson, August 31, 2017.
    • “The Chad Pregracke” –  Marquette Transportation Co. has named their latest M/V (motor vessel) after our fearless leader – May 23, 2017 – More Information.
  • 2016
    2016
    • Chad honored as a CNN Superhero – December 8, 2016 - more information
    • Chad was presented with the River Bell – Distinguished Service Award from the Seaman’s Church Institute – December 8, 2016 
  • 2015
    2015
    • Awarded keys to three of Alabama’s “Quad Cities,” which are framed and happily hanging on a barge wall. The cities are: Florence, Sheffield and Tuscumbia.
  • 2013
    2013
    • Illinois proclaims December 1 as Chad Pregracke Day – November 27, 2013 – official proclamation details
    • CNN Hero of the Year – November 19, 2013
    • The Order of Lincoln – Given by the Academy of Lincoln at Augustana College, Rock Island, IL April 13th, 2013
  • 2011
    2011
    • National Rivers Hall of Fame Dubuque – Iowa National Achievement Award – Presented at the Waterways Council Inc. Symposium, Pittsburgh, PA October 21st, 2011
    • Points of Light Tribute – “A Celebration of Service” – Recognition honoring Chad Pregracke, JFK Center Washington, DC March 21st, 2011
  • 2010
    2010
    • Lincolnland Legends Honoree – Illinois Dollars for Scholars February 10th, 2010
    • Black Hawk College Alumni Hall of Fame – August 8th, 2010
    • Mitchum’s “Hardest Working Person in America” – August 18th, 2010
    • Honorary Citizen of the Year – City of Rock Island, Illinois August 23rd, 2010
  • 2009
    2009
    • Community Builder Award – Moline Lodge no. 1014 A.F. & A.M. August 8th, 2009
    • Heartland Community College Distinguished Alumni Award – Heartland Community College, Normal, Illinois April 20th, 2009
    • Dedication of The Pregracke Center – Heartland Community College, Normal, Illinois April 20th, 2009
  • 2008
    2008
    • Golden Glow Individual Award – Association of Great Lakes Outdoor Writers September 2008
    • Nominated for Heroes of Conservation –Field & Stream Magazine September 2008
    • River Industry Executive Task Force honored Chad for his commitment to river ecosystem restoration and his visionary achievement in building alliances for a cleaner river – Presented at the “Make Change Possible”- Inland Waterways Conference March 4th, 2008
  • 2007
    2007
    • Distinguished Alumnus Award – Illinois Community College Trustees Association June 8th, 2007
    • Environmental Hero Award from Illinois Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn for MillionTrees Project
    • Take Pride in America – United States Department of Interior
  • 2006
    2006
    • 2006 River Steward Award – presented by Prairie Rivers Network
    • 2005 Quad Citian of the Year – presented by Best of the Quad Cities 2005 River Cities’ Reader Poll. Award presented in 2006
    • Outstanding Alumni Award – 2006 American Association of Community Colleges
  • 2005
    2005
    • Achievement in Conservation – Hannah Caldwell Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution
    • Environmental Stewardship Award – National Mississippi River Parkway Commission, Minneapolis, Minnesota
    • National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration Award (NOAA)
    • People Are Today’s Heroes (PATH) Award – Governor Rod R. Blagojevich
  • 2004
    2004
    • Quad-Cities Area Leaders under 40 – Black Hawk College Foundation, Moline, IL
    • Seventh annual “What’s Right with the Region!” award presented by FOCUS St. Louis
  • 2003
    2003
    • Social Entrepreneurship Award – Manhattan Institute for Policy Research
    • Honorary Doctorate – St. Ambrose University, Davenport, IA
    • Hall of Fame – United Township High School, East Moline, IL
    • National Fishing Hall of Fame – Hayward, WI
  • 2002
    2002
    • The Jefferson Award, presented by the American Institute for Public Service (comparable to the Nobel Prize) – Awarded for Community Service in Washington, D.C.
    • Outstanding Achievement Award – Mary Little Deere-Fort Armstrong Chapter NSDAR (Daughters of the American Revolution)
  • 2001
    2001
    • Hometown Hero Hall of Fame – TEK Extra Magazine for Kids (A Time Magazine publication distributed to schools)
    • Humanitarian Award – Southern Illinois Celebration of National Hunting & Fishing Days
    • Excellence in Education Award – Black Hawk College
    • Best Conservation Activities – Mary Little Deere-Fort Armstrong Chapter NSDAR (Daughters of the American Revolution)
    • Biography Magazine Top 10 Future Classics in America Award
  • 2000
    2000
    • E-chievement Award – E Town (National Public Radio)
    • Merit Award – Soil and Water Conservation Society
    • Eddy Award for Environmental Stewardship – River Action
    • Making Waves Award (Peoria, IL) – Clean Water Celebration
    • Conservationist of the Year Award – Izaak Walton League, Iowa Chapter
    • Distinguished Community Service – Rock Island Rotary
    • Chuck Yeager Award – National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
    • Fellow of the Institute (Augustana College) – Institute for Leadership & Services
    • Key to the City – Quincy, IL
    • Metrobank – Eagle Award for Community Service
  • 1999
    1999
    • Environmental Stewardship Award – Putnam Museum of Natural History
    • Merit Award – Soil and Water Conservation Society, Illinois Chapter
  • 1998
    1998
    • John H. Williams Community Service Award – Community Caring Conference
    • Citizen Conservationist of the Year – Illinois Wildlife Federation
  • 1997
    1997
    • Certification of Recognition – Modern Woodman of America
    • Appreciation Award – Northern Zone Association of Illinois Wildlife Foundation
    • Illinois Jaycees Top Ten Outstanding Young Persons Award

Our Impact

  • Pounds of Trash Removed

    13,258,825

  • Volunteers Engaged

    130,547

  • Students Educated

    27,944

  • Trees Planted

    1,953,378

© 2024 Living Lands & Waters
Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

  1. What Information Do We Collect? When you visit our website you may provide us with two types of information: personal information you knowingly choose to disclose that is collected on an individual basis and website use information collected on an aggregate basis as you and others browse our website.
  2. Personal Information You Choose to Provide We may request that you voluntarily supply us with personal information, including your email address, postal address, home or work telephone number and other personal information for such purposes as correspondence, placing an order, requesting an estimate, or participating in online surveys. If you choose to correspond with us through email, we may retain the content of your email messages together with your email address and our responses. We provide the same protections for these electronic communications that we employ in the maintenance of information received by mail and telephone.
  3. Website Use Information Similar to other websites, our site may utilize a standard technology called "cookies" (see explanation below, "What Are Cookies?") and web server logs to collect information about how our website is used. Information gathered through cookies and server logs may include the date and time of visits, the pages viewed, time spent at our website, and the sites visited just before and just after ours. This information is collected on an aggregate basis. None of this information is associated with you as an individual.
  4. How Do We Use the Information That You Provide to Us? Broadly speaking, we use personal information for purposes of administering our business activities, providing service and support and making available other products and services to our customers and prospective customers. Occasionally, we may also use the information we collect to notify you about important changes to our website, new services and special offers we think you will find valuable. The lists used to send you product and service offers are developed and managed under our traditional standards designed to safeguard the security and privacy of all personal information provided by our users. You may at any time to notify us of your desire not to receive these offers.
  5. What Are Cookies? Cookies are a feature of web browser software that allows web servers to recognize the computer used to access a website. Cookies are small pieces of data that are stored by a user's web browser on the user's hard drive. Cookies can remember what information a user accesses on one web page to simplify subsequent interactions with that website by the same user or to use the information to streamline the user's transactions on related web pages. This makes it easier for a user to move from web page to web page and to complete commercial transactions over the Internet. Cookies should make your online experience easier and more personalized.
  6. How Do We Use Information Collected From Cookies? We use website browser software tools such as cookies and web server logs to gather information about our website users' browsing activities, in order to constantly improve our website and better serve our users. This information assists us to design and arrange our web pages in the most user-friendly manner and to continually improve our website to better meet the needs of our users and prospective users. Cookies help us collect important business and technical statistics. The information in the cookies lets us trace the paths followed by users to our website as they move from one page to another. Web server logs allow us to count how many people visit our website and evaluate our website's visitor capacity. We do not use these technologies to capture your individual email address or any personally identifying information about you.
  7. Notice of New Services and Changes Occasionally, we may use the information we collect to notify you about important changes to our website, new services and special offers we think you will find valuable. As a user of our website, you will be given the opportunity to notify us of your desire not to receive these offers by clicking on a response box when you receive such an offer or by sending us an email request.
  8. How Do We Secure Information Transmissions? When you send confidential personal information to us on our website, a secure server software which we have licensed encrypts all information you input before it is sent to us. The information is scrambled en route and decoded once it reaches our website. Other email that you may send to us may not be secure unless we advise you that security measures will be in place prior to your transmitting the information. For that reason, we ask that you do not send confidential information such as Social Security, credit card, or account numbers to us through an unsecured email.
  9. How Do We Protect Your Information? Information Security -- We utilize encryption/security software to safeguard the confidentiality of personal information we collect from unauthorized access or disclosure and accidental loss, alteration or destruction. Evaluation of Information Protection Practices -- Periodically, our operations and business practices are reviewed for compliance with organization policies and procedures governing the security, confidentiality and quality of our information. Employee Access, Training and Expectations -- Our organization values, ethical standards, policies and practices are committed to the protection of user information. In general, our business practices limit employee access to confidential information, and limit the use and disclosure of such information to authorized persons, processes and transactions.
  10. How Can You Access and Correct Your Information? You may request access to all your personally identifiable information that we collect online and maintain in our database by emailing us using the contact form provided to you within the site structure of our website.
  11. Do We Disclose Information to Outside Parties? We may provide aggregate information about our customers, sales, website traffic patterns and related website information to our affiliates or reputable third parties, but this information will not include personally identifying data, except as otherwise provided in this privacy policy.
  12. What About Legally Compelled Disclosure of Information? We may disclose information when legally compelled to do so, in other words, when we, in good faith, believe that the law requires it or for the protection of our legal rights.
  13. Permission to Use of Materials The right to download and store or output the materials in our website is granted for the user's personal use only, and materials may not be reproduced in any edited form. Any other reproduction, transmission, performance, display or editing of these materials by any means mechanical or electronic without our express written permission is strictly prohibited. Users wishing to obtain permission to reprint or reproduce any materials appearing on this site may contact us directly.
Terms & Conditions

Terms & Conditions

Donation Refund Policy

We are grateful for your donation and support of our organization. If you have made an error in making your donation or change your mind about contributing to our organization please contact us. Refunds are returned using the original method of payment. If you made your donation by credit card, your refund will be credited to that same credit card.

Automated Recurring Donation Cancellation

Ongoing support is important to enabling projects to continue their work, so we encourage donors to continue to contribute to projects over time. But if you must cancel your recurring donation, please notify us.

Powered by Firespring