Friends of the River

🎓🌊 Join us in welcoming our newest river guides at Friends of the River! After completing our 10-Day Guide Activist Training, these dedicated advocates are ready to lead, educate, and protect California’s rivers for future generations. Their passion, hard work, and commitment to river conservation inspire us all.

Please help us congratulate our graduating guides as they take the next step in becoming powerful voices for our waterways! 💙

Safety first on the river. Today at Friends of the River’s Guide Activist Training, our guides practiced CPR and emergency response skills so every guest can feel confident, cared for, and safe on the water.

Great river trips start with preparation, teamwork, and guides who are ready when it matters most. 🌊 Thank you to Ian at Sierra Rescue International for facilitating our first aid course!

FOR’s Guide Activist Training School is underway this week with 10 new trainee guides joining our crew! 🌊🚣‍♀️ This week we’re learning to read water, guide guests, and advocate for the rivers we love.

Would you spend 10 days paddling the South Fork American River? 💪

A river without friends is a river that won’t last.

To our river friends in the Sacramento area—today is your chance to stand up for the rivers you love.

⏳ Big Day of Giving ends at midnight!

This 24-hour Sacramento community fundraising event only comes once a year, and your support right now helps protect California’s rivers from harmful projects and ensures they keep flowing for future generations.

Every gift counts in these final hours.

💙 Give before midnight ➡️ https://www.bigdayofgiving.org/organization/friendsoftheriver

🫶 Today’s the day Sacramento—Big Day of Giving is here!

This 24-hour giving event brings our community together to support local nonprofits—and today, you can stand up for California’s rivers.

Your gift helps keep rivers flowing and ecosystems thriving.

💙 Donate now ➡️ https://www.bigdayofgiving.org/organization/friendsoftheriver

Future river leaders, meet the river. 🌊 This weekend, we traded meeting rooms for river currents and campfire conversations with Environmental Policy graduate students from UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz. 🌊✨

We spent the weekend camping under the stars at Camp Lotus and rafting the South Fork American River, turning the river into a living classroom.

Between rapids and shared meals, we dove into the real story behind California rivers—how they’re used, overused, allocated, and managed—and what it takes to protect them. Around the campfire, students and staff swapped ideas, talked water policy and advocacy, and built connections rooted in a shared commitment to rivers.

There’s something powerful about learning this work while immersed in it, feeling the current, seeing the impacts, and imagining a better future together.

What river is meaningful to you? Drop it in the comments 👇

We’re just days away from Big Day of Giving on May 7—but giving is already open.

Big Day of Giving is a 24-hour community-wide fundraiser that helps nonprofits like Friends of the River raise critical support for our work.

Your early gift helps build momentum to protect California’s rivers from dams, diversions, and pollution.

💙 Give today ➡️ https://www.bigdayofgiving.org/organization/friendsoftheriver

www.bigdayofgiving.org