Blue Ridge Country March/April 2021 - 38
By NANCY HENDERSON | Photos courtesy KATHLEEN GIBI
MELINDA WATSON
IS 'ADOPT A STORM DRAIN' IN YOUR TOWN?
Water Works
Kathleen Gibi's rich and accomplished life has brought her
back home, to work on cleaning up the Tennessee River.
K
athleen Gibi had always been an
over-the-top fan of Jenny Berggren, lead singer of Ace of Base,
the Swedish band known for the
1998 hit " Cruel Summer. " And
she continued to resonate with
the artist's faith-filled music
when Berggren went solo. So when Berggren released a particularly inspiring song
soon after Gibi and her husband discovered extreme foundation damage in their
new house, she felt compelled to contact
the entertainer through social media. After they met at a book fair in Gothenburg,
Sweden, in 2009, Gibi, an energetic tech
ABOVE: Kathleen Gibi gives a test run to
Keep Tennessee River Beautiful's new motor,
donated by Yamaha Rightwaters and Anderson
Marine last summer.
38
BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM
wiz with a public relations background,
started handling marketing projects for
Berggren, from organizing online scavenger hunts to coordinating media interviews and even translating the star's biography into English.
Of her unlikely client, says Gibi, 38,
now executive director of Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful, " She's definitely
one of those people who's here to do good
in the world. "
The same could be said for Gibi, who
works to conserve the Knoxville-based organization's 652-mile namesake. (KTNRB
is the first Keep America Beautiful affiliate
to focus solely on a river.) She tirelessly
organizes volunteer cleanups, encourages the public to practice conservation at
home, and draws from the same " dream
big " mindset that landed her a sweet gig
with a pop star into a mission to protect
the region's natural waterways.
A Knoxville native who started playing
competitive softball at age 8 and won a
state website design competition in high
school, Gibi spent summer vacations hiking in national parks, from Yellowstone
and the Grand Tetons to, of course, the
Smokies. At age 16 and every summer and
Christmas break after that, she interned at
Knoxville's Parks and Recreation Department, where she funneled her passion for
technology into a public relations campaign for the city.
When she graduated from college in
2004, Gibi took her mentor's place. For
the next 15 years, she spearheaded a number of projects, including the city's firstever greenway race, a series of laminated
flashcards attached to the life vests of
creek paddlers to help them identify wildlife, and a fishing event to highlight the
http://www.BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM
Blue Ridge Country March/April 2021
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country March/April 2021
Blue Ridge Country March/April 2021 - Cover1
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Blue Ridge Country March/April 2021 - Cover3
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