Clean Water Celebration

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APRIL 28, 2025, the 32nd Clean Water Celebration!

〰️ APRIL 28, 2025, the 32nd Clean Water Celebration!

Celebrate the importance of water from different perspectives and learn how you can protect the most precious resource for all living things, clean water!

The Clean Water Celebration is held each spring at the Peoria Civic Center in Peoria, Illinois. The largest event of its kind in the world, students learn how to make a difference by protecting water—our most precious resource. Illinois students, teachers, business professionals and environmentalists, are joined by an odd assortment of tiny tadpoles, wiggly worms, native bluegills, and zebra mussels. There’s nothing like it anywhere.

The Sun Foundation Clean Water Celebration is a truly unique event, a model developed in Peoria for the world. Since its inception in 1994 as a collaboration between the Rivers Project and Sun Foundation, it has reached an estimated 60,000 students and adults.

The goal is to teach the importance of thinking globally and acting locally to protect the right to clean water and a healthy environment. Rich, rigorous, relevant STEM experiences increase knowledge in the community and schools about the importance of water conservation and preservation. The Sun Foundation Clean Water Celebration builds networks of awareness and action.

It is our dream that this program will grow to link school to school, community to community, state to state, and country to country, to take action and clean and protect our water and our environment.

Our celebration incorporates a variety of different programs for students and has grown each year to become a magical educational experience combining both the arts and sciences.

Virtual Clean Water Celebration

Available now from anywhere you have Internet access, Sun Foundation presents a Virtual Environmental Classroom and our Clean Water Champions video series! The Virtual Clean Water Celebration is 100% free of charge.

Entering the Virtual Environmental Classroom, you will find yourself at a virtual version of our Peoria Riverfront. It comes complete with the Illinois River, the Gateway Building, the plazas, the fountain, the Landing, the Spirit of Peoria, and, most importantly, our Clean Water Champions!

With the generous sponsorship of Illinois American Water, Interactiva Studios has created an experience that will enable you to travel along our Peoria Riverfront to visit and learn from Clean Water Champions: scientists, artists, conservationists, storytellers, and youth leaders.

Try the Clean Water Celebration app (iOS and Android)!

Create your own ACTION PLAN and be a Clean Water Champion.

Support

We’d love your support to continue to offer Clean Water Celebrations as a free event for the community. Make a donation or volunteer your time →

Plan a Clean Water Celebration

Interested in planning a Clean Water Celebration in your community? Download our resource guide.

Featured

Clean Water Celebrations

Celebrating Dr. Robert Williams

Clean Water Celebrations

Dr. Robert Williams, Dr. Bob, was the creator of the Illinois Rivers Project.

In 1993, the Sun Foundation collaborated with Dr. Bob and the Illinois Rivers Project and the Sun Foundation Clean Water Celebration was created to share high school students' work, experts and more with upper elementary and middle school students in Central Illinois on the Monday following the annual Rivers Project Student Congress.

He connected so many people in his love for our rivers! Thank you Dr. Bob!

Clean Water Celebrations