April 29, 2017 – Not quite 500 as they had hoped but Friends of the Chicago River assembled a couple hundred people on the Riverwalk for a group photo on Wednesday. The 200 represented, says the nonprofit organization, “the thousands who care about the river.”

The “keep the river clean photobomb” between Clark and LaSalle Streets was to promote Overflow Action Month, a 30-day campaign to encourage Chicagoans to conserve clean water and reduce pollution going into the Chicago River.

“The river has improved dramatically,” said Margaret Frisbie, executive director of the 6,000-member Friends of the Chicago River, “and there is so much interest in it right now that it is almost difficult to keep track of it all.”

Despite enthusiasm for the Riverwalk and related developments, Frisbie says “there are still a lot of complex problems we need to address, including storm water runoff and occasional sewage pollution, especially this month when there’s been so much rain.”

(Left) Broadcast legend Bill Kurtis participates in the April 26 “photobomb” event.

New Bridgehouse/river museum director is forest preserve advocate

The McCormick Bridgehouse & Chicago River Museum, operated by Friends of the Chicago River, has hired a new director. Josh Coles is a community organizer with Friends of the Forest Preserves, an organization founded in 1998 to protect, restore, and expand forest preserves in Cook County. He works with volunteers on the north branch of the Chicago River.

“While it is bittersweet to leave my position at Friends of the Forest Preserves,” posted Coles (right) on Facebook recently, “I am thrilled to be joining new friends. My job at FOTFP has been much more than a job. It has changed my life, I’ve made many new friends, and have been inspired in countless ways.”

Coles has a degree in biological anthropology from Kent State University and lives in Chicago.