ROCK ISLAND, ILLINOIS (April 24, 2023) — On April 28, Rock Action will host its yearly friend-raiser and fundraiser, Fish and Fire, at the Rock Island Holiday Inn, 5:30-8:30PM. The event includes the 24th Annual Eddy Awards and the 2023 Eddy Scholarship Winners.
Award winners are leaders and pioneers. They are persistent, tenacious, and inspiring. They ask ‘What’s the thing that’s not the world that should be in the world?” and then they set about doing it — going against the current as an eddy in the river to get it done.
At the Eddy Award Ceremony:
- Laura McCreery will receive the Education Award for her work at Davenport North High School in hosting an environmental film climate-education, and hands-on conservation work at the school and in the community.
- Greg Smith will receive the Design Award for development and installation of a water-treatment resource in a village in Kenya with his Davenport West High School students.
- The River Activity Award will go to Chris Boar and Keep Muscatine Beautiful for the many fundraising and community events, Almost Thursday Fests May to September on the Muscatine riverfront.
- The Stewardship award will go to Jeff Craver, Rock Iland Forest Preserve, for the purchase and rebirth of 172 acres in East Moline turning farmland into pollinator habitat.
- A Special Recognition Award will go to Molly Newell, EnviroNet, for brownfield clean-ups and an historic building renovation on the river.
- Mark Schweibert, former Mayor of Rock Island, will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award for championing the environment in twenty years of public service and philanthropy.
- A Special Recognition Award will go to Ed Choate, LeClaire City Administrator, retired, for the revival of LeClaire’s gateways, Cody Road, tourism, and riverfront.
- Brian Dockery, RiverStone Group, will receive the Revitalization Award for the company’s two donated properties; 500 acres on the Rock River and Mississippi River to Rock Island; and the gift of an office building in downtown Moline to Renew Moline for redevelopment.
The Fish and Fire event also includes a social hour, silent auction, cash bar, and a plated dinner.
