Fans who attended the 2020 Bassmaster Classic in Birmingham earlier this year had the chance to help keep Lake Guntersville and other Tennessee River reservoirs clean by making a $10 donation to the Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful organization at the Carhartt booth in exchange for a custom Carhartt Classic beanie.
During the three-day 2020 Bassmaster Classic Outdoor Expo on March 6-8, hardworking folks from the Carhartt manufacturing plant were in the Carhartt exhibit booth sewing the B.A.S.S. logo on Carhartt’s famous “A18” acrylic watch cap.
Thanks to loyal and generous fishing fans who purchased the custom beanies, $4,990 was raised to help assure Lake Guntersville and other iconic bass fisheries along the Tennessee River are far less littered with trash for years to come.
The Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful organization performs inspiring work. Thus far, they have collected 99,000 pounds of trash from popular Tennessee River bass fisheries such as Guntersville and Pickwick through roughly 30 cleanups annually.
Kathleen Gibi, executive director of the organization, recently met Carhartt pro angler Matt Lee at Lake Guntersville and had this to say about the generous donation fishing fans helped make possible.
“Our goal is to inspire Tennessee River Valley residents to take action for a positive impact on their river, and this donation will help us push even further with our education and river cleanup efforts using our 25-foot work boat,” says a very grateful Gibi. “The team at Carhartt has demonstrated how they can lead with good river stewardship by supporting water conservation.”
While 2020 has been a challenging year with cleanup postponements due to COVID-19, Gibi says she still expects the organization to conduct nearly 30 cleanups this calendar year, and it intends to name a future cleanup day in Carhartt’s honor.
The custom Carhartt beanie project is an ongoing annual effort by Carhartt to partner with B.A.S.S. and avid fans at the Classic each year to support conservation agencies and projects in the host state of the Classic each year.
