Izzy's River by Holly Webb

wouldn’t have been as much fun if it was raining,” Emily said.
    “It definitely wouldn’t. And you organised this all by yourselves?” The interviewer’s voice was so familiar – Izzy’s dad usually put the local radio on when they were on the way to school, and quite often it was Jenny Wells presenting the show.
    “It wasn’t all that difficult,” Izzy said shyly. “We had to get permission from the council, and then we had a cake sale to raise money to hire the skip. Oh! Please can we say thank you to Sampson Skip Hire? They gave us about two-thirds of a skip free! So please use them if you want a skip!”
    “And the supermarket in Millford! They gave us all the bin bags,” Poppy put in.
    “And Mr Finlay and Mrs Angel at Park Road School for helping us with the cake sale,” Maya remembered to add. Izzy nodded gratefully. It was a good idea to keep Mrs Angel sweet, and she’d totally forgotten.
    Jenny was laughing. “OK, OK. So is there anything else you girls need? The clean-up’s going on again today as well, isn’t it?”
    “Yes. So more people to help would be brilliant,” Izzy agreed. “And anyone who can do other things – like maybe make a sign? If we put up a new sign, saying that it’s a nature reserve, maybe peoplewouldn’t drop so much rubbish.”
    “There’s a really nice bit under the bridge too, where you can sit and watch the water even if it’s raining. If anyone’s got an old bench, or something like that, it would be even better…” Emily added.
    “Nice idea. And they need to come and find you girls at the river at the bottom of Illroy Park, from ten o’clock today?”
    “Yes. And please can we say thank you to everyone who helped yesterday,” Izzy added. “There were thirty people altogether off and on.” That was counting Ali, Lucy and Elspeth, who hadn’t exactly helped, but thirty sounded like a good number. More of a round number than twenty-seven.
    “Of course. So, there you are, everyone. If you’ve got some free time between ten and four today, get your wellies on and get down to Illroy Park. And a big thank you to Izzy, Poppy, Emily and Maya for such a brilliant campaign.”

    “We heard it on the radio!” That was what everyone was saying. That and “So which one are you?”
    Izzy had told people she was Izzy about fifteen times. But she didn’t mind. There were so many of them. And lots of people had brought their owngloves, and even some more bin bags, which was good, because they were starting to run out. The skip was getting full too, and Izzy’s dad had done one run to the tip already, with the big stuff, assorted bits of bikes, and the stinky damp mattress. There was a fridge in the back of the truck waiting for the next run.
    The best bit was that a man had turned up with an inflatable dinghy in the back of his van, and volunteered to ferry people over to the other side of the river.
    “How did you know?” Izzy asked him delightedly. “We were saying yesterday that we couldn’t get that bit clean, and wasn’t it sad.”
    He laughed. “I walk my dog along here as well. But I’d never thought of organising everybody to clean it up. Hats off to you girls. Still, I thought to myself that you’d need help getting across to the other bank, so here I am.”
    She could see them now, a couple of girls from Year Six at Park Road, as well as a few other people she didn’t know, filling bags on the other side of the river.
    “Do you want a biscuit, Izzy?” Poppy came over with a tin of cookies that her mum had made.
    “Hello.” An elderly man with a grey, pointed beard was standing in front of her, and Izzy looked back round at him, smiling.
    “Hello, have you come to help?” She hoped he would be all right, he looked a little bit fragile for hefting stuff about.
    “Yes, although I’m not absolutely sure what you’ll want me to do. I heard you on the radio, you see, and one of your friends – at least, I don’t think it was you –