AMITY River sojourn paddles on
POTTSTOWN>> Like a brightly colored swarm of insects hovering above the water, 114 kayakers paddled from Amity Township to Riverfront Park in Pottstown the afternoon of June 7, completing day four of the 18th annual Schuylkill River Sojourn.
The pit stop was one of many along 112-mile week long excursion that began Saturday in Schuylkill County and ended in Philadelphia.
Sojourn participants camped out along the banks of the river the night of June 7 listening to live music by De Tiera Caliente. Then they watched night two of Pottstown’s first ever film festival “In-Focus.” The paddlers kicked off again the next morning aiming toward Royersford and Mont Clare.
One of the goals of the annual voyage is to show that the river is a lot cleaner than it used to be, said Laura Catalano, Schuylkill River National & State Heritage Area communications director. The Schuylkill River has a reputation for being very polluted.
“The real reason that we do it is we want people to see the whole river and to experience the
river,” Catalano said. “Studies have found that people that paddle a river are more likely to become protective of that river, to become advocates for it.”
A new addition to this year’s sojourn is Brad Maule, the Schuylkill Steward, who is traveling with the kayakers throughout the entire journey and documenting online using social media any litter that he sees along the way. The steward position is funded through the Schuylkill Action Network.
“It’s to try to raise awareness about litter in the river and how it changes from Schuylkill County to Berks, to Montgomery, Chester — the whole way down,” said Silas Chamberlin, Schuylkill River Heritage Area execu- tive director. “That’s tied into our overall priority of trying to raise awareness about the quality of the water in the Schuylkill River.”
“There is still this problem,” said Maule. “And it’s not just urban areas like a lot of people would think … Any litter anywhere will eventually make its way into a waterway if it’s left unchecked.”
Every photo Maule takes will be geotagged to allow local groups and communities in the future to return to problem areas and help clean them up.
“Even though his job has been to find trash along the way, he’s also done a really good job in his blog posts of observing just what goes on on the sojourn,” Catalano said.
Maule has been posting photos to his personal Instagram account (MauleofAmerica), and on the Schuylkill Action Net- work’s Instagram account (SchuylkillWaters). He also files a daily report on his website PhillySkyline.com which is has been shared on the Schuylkill Acton Network and Schuylkill River Heritage Center Facebook pages.
Another new addition to this year’s sojourn was the Bill Trace Scholarship, which enables two first timers to join the trip for a day for free. The scholarship is in memory of Bill Trace, a longtime sojourner and devoted member of the Schuylkill River Heritage Area, Chamberlin said. This year’s scholarship recipients are Susan Rivera and Meg Vilmont.
For veteran sojourners, the fun of the trip was seeing how the trip changes but conversely stays the same each year.
“They’re al l good, they’re all different, it’s all the same river, but they’re all different,” said Jim Showalter, who celebrated his 18th year paddling on the sojourn this year. “Over the 18 years it’s sort of evolved.”
For starters, the popularity of the trip has grown, he said. The number of people signed up for the full trip has grew from about 13 peo- ple in year two, to around 80 this year. Many veterans said it’s been interesting to watch people whowere children when they first started on the sojourn grow into adults and start to bring children of their own with them on the trip.
“Over the years we’ve all grown to know each other,” Showalter said. “So it’s like a reunion in a lot of ways.”