The Cedar River Festival Inc. is proud to announce it's 15th Anniversary. While we wish our efforts were no longer necessary we have come once again to ask the Cedar Valley community to join us in our annual river clean up, which shall be occurring this July 13. Be a local hero and aid our effort to
make our community a better place whether it's helping on shore to pick up paper and other waste in our parks or down and dirty  in the river hauling out appliances that have been carelessly dumped by others. Both large and small - we need your help to get  it done.
         In 1988 the  Cedar River Festival Inc. was formed due to concern for water quality, as a non profit  corporation aimed at increasing  awareness for the Cedar River as a community resource. Since then  this event has served as an occasion to bring the people of the Cedar Valley together to rid various
portions of the Cedar River and it's tributaries in both Bremer and Black Hawk counties of over 80 tons of garbage and contaminates. The work of our volunteers have even expanded to the cleanup and preservation of other of our communities natural resources, for the better enjoyment by all.
        This year we are continuing our challenge to local companies and organizations to financially sponsor and/or  provide volunteers for the cleanup in addition to all the individuals who have donated their efforts to this common cause. In order to facilitate this we are once again putting forth a competition for to see who can provide the most volunteer help, and bring in the most trash by awarding our traveling trophy that is awarded to the group that achieves this feat. There shall be a winner chosen in both the group/ company and individual team categories, as well as a special award for the most unique trash collected. By doing this we hope to make an all ready rewarding event, even more fun, with the end result of making our Cedar River basin a better and safer place to live and enjoy. We commemorate the Brown Bottle restaurant of Cedar Falls for winning our first years challenge, and now wish to congratulate the staff and management of PetCo for being last years ultimate go getters. Will your group be the one to step
up to the plate next?
        We have also joined in an coordinated effort with the Black Hawk County Conservation Department to hit a number of areas that  may fall in your own neighborhood that do not involve the need of a canoe. There are some areas near the water that are in desperate need and could be cleaned up by
smaller individual groups with just a morning effort. As with the main river cleanup, We'll supply  the means to remove the trash and all we need from you is the effort.