By Doug Alderson
January 7, 2026: A key measure of any viable non-profit organization is volunteer engagement, and the summary of Apalachicola Riverkeeper’s 2025 volunteer hours tells a story of a healthy organization. Twenty-three different individuals logged in 1328 volunteer hours. At a dollar value of $25.43 an hour, this volunteer effort equals $33,125! Volunteer efforts ranged from the annual ghost trap cleanup to monthly cleaning at the Mill Pond in Apalachicola to water quality monitoring to tree planting along the sloughs that were part of our slough restoration project.
Of course, we didn’t capture all of the volunteer efforts that occurred in 2025, such as the 215 volunteers who spread out along the coast of Franklin County as part of the International Coastal Cleanup in September. Organized by Apalachicola Riverkeeper and spearheaded by Susan Macken of the staff, partners included Keep Franklin County Beautiful, Forecastle Foundation, SGI Trash Patrol, Conservation Pathways, Franklin County Waste, and area state parks. There were 17 different cleanup locations, and volunteers picked up 4,350 pounds of trash, ranging from derelict crab traps to beach umbrellas.
Another volunteer effort we didn’t capture were all the hours the 22 RiverTrek participants put in for fundraising and actually paddling the entire river. Just the paddling hours would have equaled almost 1,000 hours! The 2025 RiverTrek volunteers raised a record $125,000 for Apalachicola Riverkeeper.
Another core group who logged in a bundle of hours was Apalachicola Riverkeeper’s Board of Directors. We captured some hours put in by members working on special projects such as John Alber’s excellent videos about the harm caused by the Corps’ navigational dredging, but all of the meetings and zoom calls were not captured.
So, if you were an Apalachicola Riverkeeper volunteer in 2025, we thank you. And we look forward to your continued participation this year and in the years to come.
