A well-known environmentalist from the Quad Cities has won another national honor. Tuesday night, CNN announced Chad Pregracke is this year's Hero of the Year. The announcement was made during an All-Star Tribute in New York City, and will be broadcast on CNN December lst.
Pregracke won 50,000 dollars for being one of the year's Top Ten Heroes, and then in voting by the public over five weeks, was chosen Hero of the Year. His group Living Lands and Waters will receive 250,000 dollars.
In 1998, he began a one-person effort to pick up trash along the Mississippi River, and since then with individual and corporate support, he's helped organize clean-ups along many major rivers across the country.
(image courtesty of CNN)