RiverKids adds Autauga County to its service area

PRATTVILLE, Ala. (WAKA) – Since 2016, RiverKids has helped introduce young people across the state to the outdoors, and it’s now adding Autauga County to its mission.

The group is working with the Alabama Scenic River Trail. At an event yesterday at Spillway Park in Prattville, the organizations came together to celebrate the expansion into Autauga County.

RiverKids works to connect children and families with nature, giving them hands-on experiences, so they can enjoy Alabama’s rivers, creeks, and lakes. The organization operates in 35 counties, teaching paddling and water safety skills along more than 1,000 miles of freshwater.

“Our goal is really to make water as accessible as it possibly can be for anyone that wants to be able to get out there and enjoy it,” Andrew Symanski, the executive director of The Alabama Scenic River Trail told Action 8 News. “We have been doing that through grant programs that help improve some of our launch sites and areas around the state. We also do this by partnering with programs like 4-H to help get more young people taught about the ways of paddling, and we also provide some other grants that help increase the number of actual boats that we have out across the state in communities that don’t have access to them.

“Last year, one of our groups in the Wiregrass area, for instance, took youth out and were identifying macroinvertebrates in the Pea River. We also had a group in Monroe County travel to Sepulga River and went hunting for fossils, so there’s a lot of education that is accompanying just learning the basic paddling skills and water safety,” Emily Nichols, natural resources extension specialist, said.

CLICK HERE to learn more about RiverKids.