Chad Pregracke founded Living Lands & Waters is a nonprofit environmental organization with a mission to clean up the Mississippi River and some of the tributaries. With the help of over 108,000 volunteers and countless supporters, they've removed over 10 million pounds of garbage from America’s rivers.

At age 17, Pregracke began calling government agencies to tell them about the problem. None of the calls resulted in action and the amount of trash on the river was growing.