CNN Hero Chad Pregracke One Year Later
PAUL: We have counted down the days until the worldwide broadcast of "CNN Heroes: an All-Star Tribute." It's a CNN holiday tradition at this point. It honors the year's top ten heroes and names of CNN heroes of the year.</s>BLACKWELL: OK, so while we're waiting for that, we want to see how last year's top honoree is doing. CNN's Anderson Cooper checks on the man dedicated to cleaning America's rivers.</s>ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In 17 years, Chad Pregracke and his team picked up eight million pounds of trash from America's rivers.</s>UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: Yeah!</s>COOPER: Last November for his inspiring work, Chad picked up a big honor. The 2013 CNN Hero of the year is Chad Pregracke.</s>COOPER: One year later, we caught up with him to get an inside look at what he does and how he does it. At the heart of his work is a massive 800 ton barge that stores the huge piles of trash that Chad's team collects. It looks like a floating junkyard but --</s>CHAD PREGRACKE: Welcome to CNN -- It's also Chad's part-time home.</s>PREGRACKE: So pretty much everything is reclaimed or recycled out of either old buildings or old barns.</s>COOPER: The goal is serious, but there's definitely quirk in this work.</s>PREGRACKE: So, this would be our creepy doll collection. Why do we have it, I don't really have any idea other than we find a lot of creepy dolls.</s>COOPER: And trash isn't all you need is to look out for on the river.</s>PREGRACKE: One of the safety concerns is actually the flying carp. They really do fly out the water at high speeds, and they get rather big.</s>COOPER: It's all part of Chad's work, work that also includes growing trees. Chad started this environmental effort in 2007, but he was able to expand it after being named CNN hero of the year. In the end, Chad's crusade is about much more than cleaning rivers.</s>PREGRACKE: It's about people taking action on their own communities. And that's really what it's all about. That's how you change the world.</s>PAUL: Tune in to see more of Chad and rescuing the river. That's a "CNN Heroes" special next Friday night. And then on Sunday December 7, at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, watch "CNN Heroes an All-Star Tribute." Who followed - CNN hero of the year. This is a star-studded evening. And it's going to give you some inspiration, which we all need a little bit of.</s>BLACKWELL: Just a little bit. A must see moment now, everybody is still talking about America's Got Talent darling Quintavious Johnson's National Anthem Performance, this was during Thanksgiving's Bears versus Lions game. Watch.</s>PAUL: Oh, my goodness! 12 years old, people.</s>BLACKWELL: 12.</s>PAUL: Way to go.</s>BLACKWELL: Wow!</s>PAUL: And he didn't forget any words. That is -- at least we're talking about an anthem where they did it well, right?</s>BLACKWELL: Yeah, because we have seen --</s>PAUL: I feel so sorry for those people that have those moments. Congratulations to him.</s>BLACKWELL: And happy birthday. He turned 13 yesterday.</s>PAUL: Happy birthday.</s>BLACKWELL: Great weekend.</s>PAUL: That's one heck of a birthday.</s>PAUL: Oh, there's so much more news to tell you about this morning.</s>BLACKWELL: The next hour of your "NEW DAY" starts right now.</s>PAUL: If you're just joining us, we're edging towards 7:00 in just about 15 seconds. Welcome. I'm Christi Paul.</s>BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. It's coming up - we've got an update from Ferguson. Because there were days of calm.</s>PAUL: There were.</s>BLACKWELL: There were.</s>PAUL: Yes, there were. At one point. Fresh clashes, though, did erupt overnight outside the police station specifically. We know at least 15 people were arrested and demonstrators and officers faced off over that fatal police shooting of Michael Brown.