it sounds fun but they can be like a missile. they are very invasive. they ve taken over a lot of the habitats. i m not too fond of them. these things are really slimy. very slippery. that s what they look like. carp. they are bad. they are not my favorite fish. let s say that. seizing this day, chad has enlisted a special group of volunteers for another clean up, his 803rd. the challenge among the marine industry to which company can get the most employees out there. all of the barge companies and all of the people who use the river. we re going to clean up some river today. you guys ready? it s important to us, you know? you see all of the trash that s around and it sickens you. chad s operation runs like a well oiled machine enabling the
my name, i was seriously shocked. so many people are like, i ve never heard you speechless because i was, i was speechless. the big award included $250,000 for his work but chad surprised the other nine honorees with him. i will give $10,000 to each of them because they are awesome. yeah. [ applause ] now one year later we cat up with chad to find out what he s doing and why he has dedicated his life to rescuing the river. chad s journey began right in his own back yard on the mighty mississippi. i didn t realize how lucky i was as a kid growing up on the river. looking back, it s like, what a great place to live. we had boats, canoes, swimming,
volunteers to get to work. even after all of these yeears, chad still attacks each piece of garbage. it s part of an old refr refrigerator so i m just going to get it out of here. not only does he get results but he s spreading an ever important lasting message. great statement, nailed it. it s not just about taking bad stuff out. in 2007 chad began putting good stuff back in growing and planting trees. the list is this long of why trees are good. the roots actually filter the water. they hold back the banks of the river. produce a lot of food for wild life and i really like trees. this new nursery is at the heart of his million trees program. welcome to living lands and waters nursery. we have about 125,000 baby oak
built the whole place. this is our classroom. in conjunction with all of our clean ups, what makes an education getting the river clean and keeping the river clean is two different things. you ve got to mix in education to make it sustainable. the goal is serious but there s definitely quirk in this work. some of the weird things we find. motorcycle helmets, a lot of those. a lot of bowling balls. what about how all of this random stuff gets into the river in the first place. there s without a doubt i think a lot of mad bowlers. people get mad. you find them still in the mad. people throw them off of a bridge or wherever they come from and it s perplexing. so what s chad s favorite mind? i ve got something pretty cool in here. this is one of the world s largest message in a bottle collections. actually, this one we just
trees growing here. they look like vegetables but they are really three different kinds of oaks. we started planting them on the mississippi river but now anybody that wants a tree, we give them to them. since he started, he has grown for than 725,000 trees and hopes to reach his goal of 1 million in 20 sta17. you know the secret, just give them a little bit of love. you go out at night and little buddy-buddy, grow. you wake up in the morning and boom. that s how do you it. chad created this nursery with a cash reward for being chosen cnn hero of the year last november. it was a big surprise on a special night. i m humbled to be part of all of this and like i will keep on cleaning up america s rivers and loving every minute of it. i have so many favorite parts