Caterpillar Foundation Sponsors New Floating Classroom to Support Environmental Education Efforts

As part of Caterpillar's ongoing commitment to sustainable development, the Caterpillar Foundation sponsors the Living Lands & Waters project, a non-profit river clean up organization whose mission is to clean up the waterways of the Midwest. The group is led by Chad Pregracke whose passion to protect, preserve and restore the nation's major rivers and watersheds has resulted in more than six million pounds of garbage being removed from Midwestern rivers since 1998.

Living Lands & Waters has developed a new floating classroom to bring students on location to learn about life on waterways. This new 150-foot long barge features a handicapped-accessible classroom, which can host up to 60 students at a time, as well as sleeping quarters for an 8-person crew. The classroom will host students attending daylong workshops on a number of different topics ranging from history to biology to the navigation of waterways.

Caterpillar is one of five major sponsors of this innovative floating classroom. The other sponsors are Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM), AEP River Operations, Ingram Barge Company and Cargill.

On Friday, October 7, 2011, Living Lands & Waters brought their floating classroom to the Peoria Riverfront, allowing the public to get an up close look at the facility. As part of the event, Michele Sullivan, Social Responsibility Initiatives Manager, presented Chad Pregracke, a check for $50,000 on behalf of the Caterpillar Foundation.

"Caterpillar is committed to making sustainable progress possible in our communities around the world by providing program support in the areas of environmental sustainability, access to education and basic human needs," said Jim Baumgartner, the Caterpillar Director of Corporate Public Affairs. "There are a number of organizations we could support, but few that can turn a vision into a reality that produces tangible results the way Chad's team can. This barge classroom is a great example of how one man's vision and hard work can benefit the greater community and the environment. Chad sets a wonderful example for all of us about making a difference for the planet as well as for the communities in which we live."

In conjunction with the classroom barge launch event, Living Lands & Waters also held a river cleanup along the Illinois River near downtown Peoria, On Saturday, October 8, approximately 80 Caterpillar employees, friends and family, boarded longboats at Detweiller Marina in Peoria, for a brisk morning trip down river where they had an opportunity to tour the barge classroom. After the tour, the volunteers took a short boat ride across Peoria Lake to clean up a stretch of waterfront land on the East Peoria side of the river. In all, the volunteers filled four boats with everything from tires and car parts to old lawn furniture and a variety of other garbage and debris.

To learn more about Living Lands & Waters, go to http://www.livinglandsandwaters.org.