In this issue...

• RiverLink benefit concert
• Americorps positions at RiverLink
• River Business awards
• Name That Creek contest
• RiverLink in Schools
•  
• River Cleanups
• March cleanup highlights
• April cleanup dates
• Great Asheville Buncome Community Cleanup
• National River Cleanup Week (June)
•  
• Volunteer Opportunities
• Volunteer orientation
• Summer Internships
• River cleanup coordintators
• Outing guides
  Outreach events

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Americorps Project Conserve

Announcing two full time year-long positions at RiverLink!
September 2007-July 2008
Education Coordinator and Volunteer Coordinator

RiverLink and Asheville SCORE are proud to honor John Payne and the Wedge Studio building and Jolene and Mitch Mechanic at the Phil Mechanic building with the 2007 RiverBusiness Awards.

The RiverBusiness Award is given each year to businesses along the urban riverfront that are attracting new people and economic activity to the river and helping to implement the Wilma Dykeman RiverWay.  Jolene and John each received a certificate honoring their outstanding contributions, a check for $250 and free business counseling for themselves and any of their tenants.

Bob Bond, Chairman of Asheville SCORE said, “Our 25 local volunteers, from diverse business backgrounds, provide free and confidential business counseling, mentoring services, and low-cost, high-impact training workshops to aspiring entrepreneurs and existing small-business owners … expertise specific to Western North Carolina." During the  2006 fiscal year, the Asheville chapter of SCORE provided nearly 1,000 counseling sessions, including some 860 face-to-face or phone contacts, and 130 online counseling sessions. The chapter also conducted more than 30 seminar/workshops for nearly 500 attendees. For more information, call Asheville SCORE at 271-4786 or visit www.ashevillescore.org.

RiverLink’s chair, Bob Shepherd, toured   both buildings before presenting the awards and met with a variety of artists and craftsmen who rent space either in the Phil Mechanic building or at the Wedge said, “this is the best, most exciting  example of  entrepreneurial  business incubators for the creative class that I have ever seen or heard about.”

RiverLink in Schools

On March 30, Riverlink’s Volunteer Coordinator, Kathryn Blau, led a Kids in the Creek program for 2^nd graders from Rainbow Mountain Children’s School at Malvern Hills Park. They participated in anEnviroscape watershed lesson and learned about water monitoring by looking for and identifying macroinvertebrates in the creek at the park.

Fifth grade students from Evergreen Community Charter School took part in an Enviroscape lesson and River of Words, in which they either made artwork or wrote poems with the Haw Creek as their inspiration. They also did a Kids in the Creek water sampling program at the Davidson River, the first of four rivers they will test this year.

RiverLink coordinated a Watershed Education lesson and river cleanup on March 19^th with Pisgah View “I Have a Dream” Foundation. The students, who ranged in age from 6 to 12, are part of a mentoring and tutoring project that does extracurricular activities and service projects.

RiverLink Volunteer Coordinator Kathryn Blau and Intern Megan Williams conducted a lesson at Carrier Park on the French Broad River. The students learned about the French Broad River watershed, pollution, and stormwater runoff.