Raymon Grace...more dedicated work from him!

Raymon Grace Foundation Joins with Emory & Henry College to sponsor River Clean Up on the North Fork of the Holston River March 26 and April 21, 2011 Howdy Folks, Once upon a time a well known news commentator, Paul Harvey, told a story that made an impression on me. It was from his ‘The rest of the story’ series. On April 13, 1800, Tom, a 57 year old man was making a list of his lifelong accomplishments and at the top of the list he wrote how he had gotten a group of people together and cleaned up the Rivanna River back in 1763. This was a man of many accomplishments including being President of the United States, and he put cleaning up a river at the top of his list. His name was Thomas Jefferson. Maybe I can understand a bit of how he felt. Today a group of over 20 volunteers from Emory & Henry College arrived to pick up trash from along the banks of the North Fork of the Holston River. This was immediately followed by Deputy Sheriff Tim Chapman driving a truck and trailer assisted by 2 inmates to haul away the trash. These efforts were the second such cleanup this year coordinated by the Upper Tennessee River Roundtable, a non-profit organization working in cooperation with Emory & Henry College, Washington County Sheriff Dept. and the Raymon Grace Foundation. This was part of Keep Southwest Virginia Beautiful, the largest regional affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, which is the lead organizer for the Great American Cleanup. This is an annual national event taking place March through May with millions of volunteers participating in such events. Now Thomas Jefferson’s work crew were moving logs and rocks to clear the river for navigation for commerce. We were clearing the river from the trash that would be picked up in the next flood. Trash consisted of such things as old tires, plastic bags, stuffed animals, food containers, cans, fabric and all manner of car parts, just to name a few. For 36 years I have picked up trash, washed down from upstream where people have dumped it along the road near the river. In the past few years the Upper Tennessee River Roundtable has been working to clean up streams and we have joined forces with them to help. The Raymon Grace Foundation established a ‘Foundation Chair’ with Emory & Henry College to provide for annual cleanups of the river from now on. Our Foundation also funded a ‘water table model’ to be used in schools to show how the water table is polluted by dumping trash and chemicals on the ground. We have also funded Appalachian Sustainable Development, another non-profit organization which goes into schools with information about respect for water and growing food. My daughter April is involved with these organizations. In this area, people dump trash in the river because that is what they have seen all their lives. Trash dumpsters are located throughout the area, but people are creatures of habit. Ignorance and lack of respect are the basic causes of this type of pollution. With chemical pollution, greed is a factor. Hopefully, by going into the schools to teach kids about respect for the water and the earth will produce a generation of smarter and more respectful people. Am writing this today to show you what can be done when people work together. What we did today can be done all over the world. It just takes someone to do something rather than talk about it. I didn’t start the Upper Tennessee River Roundtable or the Washington County Sheriff Department or Emory & Henry College, all I did was join forces with them for a common cause. Over 25 years ago I set a goal to clean up water and hoped to find a way to do it throughout the world. At the time I didn’t have a clue as to how to accomplish this, so I started picking up trash from the river on my farm and at the beach. Later I learned how to change the energy in a cup of water, then to energize a swimming pool, then how to take pollutants out of a well. Now our information on how to change the energy of water and clean it up is available in 48 countries. See what can be done by setting a goal and working toward it. You can do the same thing in your community!!! Remember, if you do nothing—nothing will happen. If you do something then something will happen---SO DO SOMETHING!!! Raymon