Mike Rowe’s “Somebody’s Gotta Do It” airs at 9 p.m. ET/PT Thursdays on CNN.
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Chad Pregracke was the 2013 CNN Hero of the Year
Mike Rowe visited Pregracke for an episode of "Somebody's Gotta Do It"
Mike Rowe is coming to a river near you.
“Sometimes, you hear about a person who makes you feel good about humanity, but bad about yourself,” Rowe says.
On Thursday’s episode of “Somebody’s Gotta Do It,” Rowe meets up with Chad Pregracke, the founder of Living Lands & Waters, who does just that.
Pregracke wants to clean up the nation’s rivers one piece of detritus at a time. His quota? Always “more.”
Read Mike Rowe’s Facebook post on how to break our litter habit.
Since he founded the nonprofit in 1998 at the ripe age of 23, Pregracke and more than 87,000 volunteers have collected 8.4 million pounds of trash from U.S. waterways. Those efforts helped him earn the 2013 CNN Hero of the Year Award, along with numerous other honors.
“Wherever you are, no matter if there’s a stream, a creek, a lake, whatever, that needs to be cleaned up, you can do it. Just organize it and do it,” he told CNN’s Anderson Cooper after his win.
Pregracke also gives Rowe a tour of the 150-foot, solar-powered barge that the Living Lands & Waters staff calls home during lengthy cleanups. The part-home, part-office, part-dumpster has seven bedrooms, two bathrooms, a classroom and a kitchen – and just happens to be made from a recycled strip club.
According to the organization’s latest annual report, Pregracke has made it his mission in 2015 to remove 500,000 more pounds of trash. If you’d like to help achieve this goal, visit his website to learn how to help: LivingLandsAndWaters.org/Get-Involved/
