River Action will honor seven organizations and business and community leaders with its Eddy Awards for their stewardship of the Mississippi River.
The 27th annual Eddy Awards presentation will be among the program highlights as River Action hosts its annual Fish & Fire celebration Thursday, April 30, at the Quad Cities Waterfront Convention Center in downtown Bettendorf.
The event brings together residents, artists, policy makers, corporate leaders, entrepreneurs, environmentalists, elected officials and philanthropists from all walks of life to celebrate the Mississippi River and the good work being done to make it and the communities along it more resilient.
2026 Eddy Awards
The recipients of this year’s awards are:
- Art: Melissa Mohr, executive director and CEO of the Figge Art Museum, Davenport, will receive the Art award for Evanescent Field, a $4 million public art installation that has transformed the downtown and riverfront with everchanging color designs. The downtown museum gave the artist a glass box and he found a Michaelangelo in it, River Action said in a recent news release.
- Design: The City of Moline will receive the Design Award for its riverfront plan that replicates natural processes when possible allowing nature’s wisdom to bestow a higher purpose on design. After receiving a Waterfront Edge Design Guidelines designation last year, the city recently received approval of its River Edge Redevelopment Zone (RERZ) application. The Moline Riverfront+Centre Plan promotes community access, sustainability, economic development and resilience.
- Education: The Education Award goes to The Upper Mississippi River Center at Augustana College in Rock Island. Under the direction of Augustana’s Michael Reisner, the center has done extraordinary work since its creation in 2012. Dr. Reisner knows how to identify potential – a skill he has used to build the center and enter into partnerships with the cities of Davenport and Rock Island, Rock Island County Forest Preserve, and most recently, the Milan Bottoms Task Force to assess riparian zones and water quality on 600 acres there.
- Restoration: The award goes to Jack Cullen, executive director of the Rock Island Downtown Alliance, who has proven to be the ideal leader in this pivotal moment of making so many investments in public services and public spaces in Downtown Rock Island. With a high degree of understanding of culture and business all at the same time, he has overseen everything from pocket parks to wide-spread streetscaping.
- River Activity: Colonel Joe Park, garrison commander, Rock Island Arsenal, will be honored for seeing opportunities for the island when he arrived more than a year ago. Since that time, he has overseen the addition of a new bike trail, reopened the golf course and a new golf clubhouse, made museum improvements, Quarters One renovations, and laid out plans for a water taxi dock near Quarters One.
- River Activity: Awards go to the LeClaire, Iowa, and Port Byron, Illinois, organizers of Tug Fest. This longstanding event exemplifies what “Joined by a River” can mean. With such infectious spirit in each community for Tug Fest, they excel at collaboration.
- Lifetime Achievement: The award will honor two powerful advocates for bikeable communities, Dean and Deb Mathias, who embody the spirit of service. With the goal to create bikeable cities, they work on bike events, blazing the Rock River and Hennepin Canal trails, advocating at department of transportation meetings for bike lanes on bridges, and setting up a foundation to advance bike trails.
Evening lineup
In addition to the Eddys, Fish & Fire includes a social hour, silent auction, plated dinner & dessert, as well as a live auction and a Fund a Cause, emceed by Bettendorf City Administrator Decker Ploehn.
The schedule is: 5 p.m., Social Hour & Silent Auction; 6:30 p.m., dinner and dessert: catfish, chicken and vegetarian options available. The presentation of the 17th Annual Eddy Awards will follow. The awards recognize those who have gone against the current to get things done and accomplished outstanding riverfront activity or development that is well designed and environmentally responsible.
To attend, purchase tickets at www.riveraction.org/fishandfire or at River Action’s office at 822 E. River Drive, Davenport. Tickets are $65; $55 for members; $450 for table of eight. Reservations are required. For more information, call River Action at (563) 322-2969.
