Keep America Beautiful has recognized Renew Our Rivers for the seventh time with a national award.  Alabama Power, Mississippi Power, Keep Etowah Beautiful and Keep Mississippi Beautiful are first-place winners for education on litter prevention in the business/professional organization category. The 2009 award will be presented at Keep America Beautiful’s 56th National Conference in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Dec. 4.

Each year, Renew Our Rivers cleanup events in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and the Florida panhandle draw thousands of volunteers who have removed more than 10 million pounds of trash and debris from Southeast United States waterways since the program’s inception in 2000. Twenty-five cleanups were held this year in Alabama from March to October.  More than 5,500 volunteers removed more than 200 tons of trash and debris from Alabama lakes and rivers. 

To have an even greater impact with their anti-litter efforts, Alabama Power and Mississippi Power, along with Keep Etowah Beautiful and Keep Mississippi Beautiful, partnered to create the “Message in the Bottle – A River Adventure” coloring book and lesson plan.  The educational outreach tool promoting a cleaner environment has been distributed to about 36,000 students in Alabama.

The coloring book was designed by Tim Towns and written by Doug Powell of Alabama Power in 2006.  “These anti-litter and non-point source pollution books were designed to appeal to kindergarten through fourth grade, the perfect age to begin teaching concepts of stewardship and conservation,” Powell said.

“Message in the Bottle – A River Adventure” is the story of a bottle’s trip down a river and the trash the bottle meets on its journey. The book depicts how trash is directly and indirectly introduced into the river and then removed by cleanup volunteers to be recycled.

Past Keep America Beautiful awards given to Southern Company and its affiliates include: 2002 for litter prevention for Alabama Power’s Renew the Coosa; 2003 for a cleanup at Georgia Power’s Plant Hamlin; 2004 Volunteer of the Year to Alabama Power’s Gene Phifer; 2006 for litter prevention to Southern Company and Georgia Power; 2007 first place in beautification to Mississippi Power; and 2008 first place in litter prevention for Mississippi Power.

For more information about Renew Our Rivers visit www.alabamapower.com/lakes.

Alabama Power, a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Southern Company (NYSE: SO), provides reliable, affordable electricity to more than 1.4 million customers across the state.  

News Media Contact:  Hallie Bradley, 205-257-4155