A Healing Life Force - North Carolina NPR News

A Healing Life Force

April 20, 2010 | Kathryn Mobley

Montie Hamby grew up in the Lewis Fork and Cricket communities in Wilkes County, with the Yadkin River always close by. Most everyone then kept a pole boat on the water. He made his first boat at the age of seven from a mortar box that he coated in heavy tar. Since then, he has made the Yadkin River his life’s work. In 1984, when he was recreation director in Wilkes County, he organized the Yadkin Pee Dee River Trail Association. The trail provides water access for paddlers to nearly 200 miles of river, from the Yadkin’s headwaters above the Kerr Scott Reservoir to its confluence with the Uwharrie River, which marks the beginning of the Pee Dee River.

Hamby was one of the founding board members of the Yadkin Riverkeeper. This month, Yadkin Riverkeeper director Dean Naujoks is paddling the full length of this river to raise awareness about the industrial and residential elements threatening the health of this waterway.

Montie Hamby also organizes several yearly river cleanups. The next one is June 5th, along a seven-mile stretch from Kerr Scott Reservoir to Smoot Park in North Wilkesboro.