AW Volunteers of the Month Presented by Kokatat: Barry Grimes and Emily Grimes

American Whitewater is stoked to recognize Barry Grimes and Emily Grimes as our April Volunteers of the Month for their tremendous work with the National Paddling Film Festival (NPFF). NPFF has been going strong since 1984 but found itself in peril this year due to Covid restrictions and the inability to hold an in-person event. In an effort to keep the festival alive, Emily took over the reigns and launched the first-ever Virtual National Paddling Films Festival. Pulling off anything for the first time is hard as heck and Emily really stuck the landing!

Barry Grimes, Emily’s dad, was a founding father of the film festival and has worked tirelessly on pulling it off every year since its inception. Barry is humble about his efforts when it comes to the fest, but without him, the show would not go on. The folks with NPFF have donated a substantial amount of money over the years to AW and we know it takes an incredible amount of time and effort to pull these festivals off—we can’t thank the all-volunteer NPFF crew enough, but we’ll try!

As Volunteers of the Month, Emily and Barry will receive a gift certificate from Kokatat, an amazing sponsor of American Whitewater. Make sure to give them both a shout of thanks when you see them on the river!