The Renew Our Rivers volunteer cleanup campaign has received a national award from Keep America beautiful for the second time.

Alabama power and other Southern Company operating companies earned first place in the Litter Prevention Award category. Alabama Power employees at the company’s Greene County steam plant and from around the area were involved in the cleanup efforts of the campaign.

Gordon said that the group collected fridges, washers and dryers along with other litter in the area. She said that the City of Demopolis helped the group recycle some of the larger household items that they found.

Hall said that the Demopolis group was made up of 196 volunteers, who put in over 1,235 hours of volunteer work.

In 2006 over 1.7 million pounds of trash were removed from Alabama lakes and waterways through the efforts of Renew Our Rivers. Hall says that the group plans to do a cleanup again April 11-14 in 2007.

The Renew Our Rivers program began as a small community cleanup in Gadsden in 2000 and has since spread into surrounding states like Florida, Mississippi and Georgia. During the 2006 campaign there were more than 6,000 volunteers statewide.

Keep America Beautiful presents the annual award for Litter Prevention to organizations and groups that demonstrate an effective partnership, serve to change attitudes and behaviors and make a significant impact in communities and states to promote litter prevention and removal.

Gordon said that they will never be able to get everything, but that they could sure put a dent in it.