Huber Honored with Chattahoochee Riverkeeper 2025 River Guardian Award
Atlanta-based Chattahoochee Riverkeeper (CRK) is honoring J.M. Huber Corporation (Huber) with their annual River Guardian Award at their 31st Annual Patron Dinner on September 19. The award recognizes Huber’s support for the Lake Lanier Aquatic Learning Center and West Point Lake Floating Classroom since 2022. This investment has provided more than 4,800 students with the opportunity to board the floating classrooms and learn about water sustainability and stewardship.
“Chattahoochee Riverkeeper is grateful for the support of the J.M. Huber Corporation,” says Chattahoochee Riverkeeper and Executive Director Jason Ulseth. “Huber’s sustained commitment to the Floating Classroom program inspires students and empowers them to protect our waterways every day. It is an honor to recognize them with this year’s River Guardian award.”
This year the Patron Dinner will look at lessons from history to guide CRK’s initiatives for the Chattahoochee River’s future. The dinner’s theme “Beyond the Horizon” will celebrate the young people who will carry on this work for years to come and lead the next generation of environmental stewards.
“As a sixth-generation family-owned business, Huber believes in the value of investing in the education of young people,” says Lea Volpe, Huber’s Vice President of Communications & Community Relations. “Through our global community engagement program, Huber Helps, the Company is able to fund programs like CRK’s Floating Classroom, which is providing access to water stewardship education to young people who otherwise may not have had this type of opportunity.”
The Floating Classroom program engages students through STEM-based, hands-on science curriculum that is tailored for each grade level and meets Georgia’s Standards of Excellence. Activities include science experiments, wildlife viewing, watershed mapping and ecology lessons that teach students the importance of protecting the Chattahoochee River.
“The hands-on experience for students was our favorite part of the Floating Classroom. Everything is interactive and applies to real-world knowledge,” says a Georgia teacher whose class participated in the program. “And taking them on the boat is a wonderful experience! Many of our students have never been on a boat and that experience is so wonderful.”
Chattahoochee Riverkeeper (CRK) is an environmental education and advocacy non-profit organization dedicated to protecting and preserving the Chattahoochee River, the primary drinking water source for more than five million people and 70% of metro Atlanta. CRK programs employ education, water monitoring, research, advocacy, communication, collaboration and legal action.
