The Reedy Recap

Friends of the Reedy River

Upcoming Events & Volunteer Opportunities

Cleveland Park Stables Invasive Plant Pull: July 13

Interested in learning more about native and invasive plant identification and why this matters for water quality? Join us and the City of Greenville Parks and Rec Department for our Invasive Plant Pull at the rain gardens at Cleveland Park Stables on the morning of July 13! Volunteers needed! Find out more here.

TD Saturday Market Booth for a Cause - July 15

Friends of the Reedy River will have a table at the TD Saturday Market on Saturday, July 15. We'll be there from 8 until noon with lots of information on how we are protecting our local watershed and how you can get involved! The TD Saturday Market is located in Downtown Greenville on Main Street at McBee Avenue. While you are shopping for fresh produce and searching for high-quality crafts, be sure to visit the FoRR table to learn more about the Reedy River!

Water Quality Monitoring Outings: TBD in mid-July

The Greenville and Simpsonville water quality monitoring teams will head to the river for water quality sampling in mid-May. Updates will be announced on our social media and in our Monitoring Team Email. Please contact us if you are interested in joining and Join Our Monitoring Team to receive future updates!

Sponsor Spotlight: Bricolage Dynamics

Friends of the Reedy River regularly promotes local businesses who operate with sustainable practices like minimizing waste and keeping the environment, and our watershed, healthy and clean. Zeb Parsons, the President and founder of Bricolage Dynamics, noticed that glass recycling became too costly for the municipalities and privately-owned recycling companies to offer anymore, so he solved this issue. Bricolage Dynamics will collect glass waste from residential and business properties and then convert it to sand. They have been able to use 97% of what comes in, making it almost three times better than the national average for recycling plants. If you are interested in becoming a Bricolage customer, visit their website at www.bricdynamics.com.

Why We Do What We Do: Plastic Free July

Friends of the Reedy River is participating in the Plastic Free July movement. Plastic Free July is a global initiative that helps millions of concerned citizens all over the world be part of the solution to plastic pollution, so that we can have cleaner streets and beautiful communities.

Throughout the month of July, we will be sharing information about how plastic usage and waste affects us at the local and global level. We will educate our community on how to reduce plastic use so that it does not end up in our local watershed, and ultimately into our oceans. You'll find all of this information and more on our website and on our social media platforms. We would love to hear what you and your family do to help reduce your plastic usage. Feel free to email your tips (and a photo) to Mary Sillik.

June In Review...

Week of June 5

BMW Charity Pro-Am Golf Tournament (BMWCPA)

The BMWCPA took place the week of June 5. This was the first year that Friends of the Reedy River led and managed the entire Green Team volunteer initiative to help the tournament in its sustainability efforts. We had over 100 people volunteer and earn money for their registered charity. It was a huge undertaking and we were so proud of all of our amazing volunteers. We also had a lot of fun out there!

Special shout out to Dapper Ink for working at our table in the Sustainability Village. They are amazing sponsors, and we were so thankful for them to help us during the busy BMWCPA. They sold beautiful shirts with Greenville-specific designs and they also helped educate the community about our mission of protecting, preserving, and restoring the Reedy River. 

• FoRR volunteers earned $4,850
• Keep One Spartanburg Beautiful: $2,250
• Girls Who Hike: $250
• Servants for Sight: $150
• Girl Scouts - The Mountains to the Midlands: $100
• The Children's Museum of the Upstate: $100

June 15

Cleveland Park Invasive Plant Pull

Volunteers joined FORR and the City of Greenville Parks and Recreation Department to remove invasive species from the rain gardens at Cleveland Park Stables and prepare the grounds for new native plantings. Thank you to everyone who joined, we appreciate all of your support and hard work!

June 13 and 23

Summer Camp Science with First Baptist Church Greenville

FORR joined groups of elementary school-aged campers at First Baptist Greenville’s summer camp in June to teach about watersheds, runoff, rain gardens, and macroinvertebrates. We had a great time seeing how excited the campers were about the macroinvertebrates and cool plants and look forward to them becoming our next generation of conservationists!

June 29

Macroinvertebrate Monitoring Workshop with SC Adopt-a-Stream

Last week, FORR led a SC Adopt-a-Stream Macroinvertebrate Monitoring volunteer training on ReWa’s campus. Volunteers received classroom instruction and in-the-field experience during this full-day workshop. Thank you to the dedicated citizen scientists who attended, and congratulations on your recent certification!

Interested in learning how to monitor the water quality in our local waterways? Find a workshop near you here!

Board Member Highlight

Phil Townsend, Vice President

Phil has over 20 years of experience in the legal services industry in both large and small firms and is currently the Chief Technology Officer at Wyche, PA in Greenville, SC. He enjoys solving business needs through creative solutions, including open source, custom built or free software solutions and technology no matter the timeframe or budget given. Phil holds a BS in Computer Information Systems and an MBA from Clemson University. He joined Friends of the Reedy River to help the local community, to learn more about river conservation, and to educate the community on water quality and conservation. 

Q: What's your favorite thing about the Reedy?

A: The progress that’s been made over the last 30 years. I like history and conservation and the Reedy certainly is a great example of what can happen through conservation over a long period of time.

Q: What's your favorite place on the Reedy?

A: Cedar Falls Park. The river is at its widest here, great playground areas and easy hiking around and lots of places to explore.

Q: What is the most fun part-time job you've ever had?

A: Painting parking lot numbers, Tiger paws on the roads and parking lots, and Death Valley numbers and letters during summers while at Clemson.

Q: Do you have any hidden talents or hobbies?

A: Building custom Lego builds? I’ve made a couple and am currently working on a zoo that is 3 feet by 6 feet in size.

Q: What is the most interesting thing you've found at a FoRR litter cleanup?

A: I’ve done ten cleanups now. For some reason, I keep finding creepy dolls that look like they are from a horror movie set. Last fall, I found one that the volunteers were too afraid to touch and said it would haunt my dreams. I took a picture, picked it up, and put it in a trash bag. It hasn’t haunted my dreams, but I will admit I have gone back and deleted that photo. I’m also always amazed at the amount of tires we get!