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Texas River School Roots

Joe Kendall established the Chautauqua Foundation in 1991 to protect Texas rivers and streams.  The Foundation’s activities include a river adoption program, river clean-ups, races, and festivals.  In 1992, Joe founded the “Adopt The Colorado River” program in cooperation with the Lower Colorado River Authority.  This highly successful community awareness effort involves hundreds of participants in numerous clean-up events along the Colorado River.  In 1997, Joe extended the Foundation to include an outdoor education program for students, creating the Texas River School. While working as a kitchen manager for the Austin Independent School District, Joe also realized a great need for nutritional education and included healthy food choices in the Texas River School curriculum.

"A group of my river buddies and I started the Chautauqua Foundation to help protect our rivers. We found out that AISD didn't have an outdoor program because they had lost the use of their campground facility. We offered to replace that program with an outdoor experience for children that would get them out on the river for a day of fun, learning and adventure. As a kitchen manager for AISD, I also saw an important issue that could be hindering students’ ability to do well in school - their eating habits. Only 1 percent of the kids in our country eat a healthy, balanced diet, according to a government study conducted in 1989-1991 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. I started thinking about my own eating patterns and realized that I always eat best when I’m on the river. So I added a new twist to The Texas River School curriculum - teach kids to make healthy food choices while preparing for an outdoor canoeing adventure.”