Update 2021-07-12: Pictures, including Fannie in a boat with a paddle in the rain.

Update 2021-06-17: We’ll actually have the boats at Reed Bingham State Park West Boat Ramp, so go through the park entrance, across the dam, in Colquitt County, Georgia. Macedonia Community Foundation has rented the beach or swimming pavilion, which is on the lake at the west end of the dam.

WWALS will be joining the Macedonia Community Foundation at Reed Bingham State Park on Saturday, June 19, 2021, to help people from Brooks, Cook, and Tift Counties, Georgia, and beyond to celebrate Juneteenth.

Fannie Marie Gibbs, Reed Bingham State Park Lake, WWALS canoes

Our contribution will be to supply boats and boating assistance for those who want to paddle out on Reed Bingham State Park Lake. For children whose parents do not want to paddle with them, we will have some adults ready to assist, as we did in June 2019 at the Cook County Centennial in the same location. All paddlers with WWALS will need to sign the WWALS event waiver so you will be covered by WWALS insurance; we will have copies of that form there.

We’ll also have the WWALS booth at the pavillion with information about water trails, water quality testing, and advocacy.

When: Noon to 5 PM, Saturday, June 19, 2021

Put In: Reed Bingham State Park East Boat Ramp, 542 Reed Bingham Rd, Adel, GA 31620. Take I-75 Exit 39, turn west on GA 37, right on Evergreen Church Road (CR 99), left on Reed Bingham SP Road (CR 221), in Cook County, Georgia.

GPS: 31.16253, -83.54123

Free: This outing is free.

We recommend you support the work of WWALS by becoming a WWALS member today!
https://wwals.net/donations/#join

Event: facebook, meetup.

Fannie Marie Gibbs, Reed Bingham State Park Lake, WWALS canoes, at Cook County Centennial, June 2019.

Boats: If you want to bring a boat, please do, especially if we can use it to get new people paddling on the lake. Bring personal flotation devices (PDFs) and paddles, too, of course. If we use your boat, you will need to sign the WWALS event waiver, so our insurance will cover you and your boat.

Paddle: Out and back on the lake. WWALS will bringing two canoes, and perhaps some kayaks. Thanks again to Sue and Bob Raffaele for donating the Old Town Canoe.

Donation of an Old Town canoe

Shuttle: None.

Host: Fannie Gibbs

Contact: John S. Quarterman

Backup: in case of high or low water is: Cancel

Juneteenth “is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. From its Galveston, Texas origin in 1865, the observance of June 19th as the African American Emancipation Day has spread across the United States and beyond.”

Juneteenth Flyer: other events are going on that same morning, but WWALS is only participating in the relaxed afternoon community gathering at Reed Bingham State Park Lake.

The Macedonia Community Foundation is preserving & restoring African & Native American cemeteries, burial grounds and landmarks in the South Georgia counties of Brooks, Lowndes & Thomas Counties. The goal is to increase economic workforce development.

Fannie Marie Gibbs “grew up with her siblings and cousins on Jackson Road[, Morven, GA] in a family home that adorns the cover of her stirring historical memoir, The Jackson Road.” Robin Postell, Valdosta Today, 17 February 2019, To Unbury History: Foundation Meets to Preserve Landlocked Cemetery.

Fannie Marie Gibbs with WWALS Water Trail Brochures for Macedonia Community Foundation. She now has a box of each, for the Withlacoochee and Little River Water Trail, including Reed Bingham State Park Lake, and for the Alapaha River Water Trail.

WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc. (WWALS) advocates for conservation and stewardship of the Withlacoochee, Willacoochee, Alapaha, Little, Santa Fe, and Suwannee River watersheds in south Georgia and north Florida through education, awareness, environmental monitoring, and citizen activities. Founded in June 2012, WWALS has board members from multiple counties in south Georgia and north Florida, and members from all over the Suwannee River Basin and from farther away. Since December 2016, John S. Quarterman is the Suwannee Riverkeeper®, which is a staff position and a project of WWALS as the member of Waterkeeper® Alliance for the Suwannee River Basin, including the Little River.

More: For more WWALS outings and events as they are posted, see the WWALS outings web page, https://wwals.net/outings/. WWALS members also get an upcoming list in the Tannin Times newsletter.

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You can join this fun and work by becoming a WWALS member today!

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