Transforming their love for each other and the Potomac River into action
/Nothing brings people together better than the Potomac River region’s incredible nature
You’ve watched The Proposal, When Harry Met Sally, and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, but the Potomac River region has our own couple whose love story that grew right on the banks of the Potomac River region, would rival those movies.
Photo credit: Hayley-Ann Vasco
Meet Stephen and Eliza, two Potomac River region locals. Their meet cute started right in Rock Creek Park, DC when they were walking their dogs one day back in 2019. Stephen, as the environmentalist he is, he was picking up trash as his dog, Brie, splashed in the stream. Eliza’s 6-month old puppy, Penny, was timid with water but jumped right in the stream when she saw Brie. It was a real shock to Eliza! While the dogs enjoyed the water together, it gave Stephen and Eliza a chance and reason to chat.
Being in Rock Creek Park, as they first met gave them a sense of calm and the time they needed to make that connection.
This chance interaction in nature led to them going on dozens of dog walks over the next 3 years where they would get to know each other on a deeper level, take a break from the busyness of DC, and simply enjoy the Potomac River region parks.
Turning their love for nature into action
After hours of time in nature together, and with their dogs, Stephen and Eliza got married in the fall of 2025. And on the busiest weekend of their lives, they decided to give back to the park they fell in love with each other in and host a litter cleanup. They invited some of their special guests from the wedding and spent a morning in Rock Creek Park picking up litter.
This cleanup was a ‘walk in the park’ for Stephen as a Potomac Conservancy Volunteer Leader; he leads group cleanups monthly around the region. Volunteering his time to improve the waterways that have given him so much. Over the past year has helped Team Potomac divert 3,300 lbs of trash from the river, just at the sites he led!
"My favorite memory of the cleanup was different groups of people from our lives talking to each other that normally wouldn’t. Between Stephen’s family and my family, it felt like the perfect icebreaker for the entire weekend because people were outside, they were picking up trash, and they were talking to each other. It was really easy for people to strike up a conversation because they had a common mission of cleaning the park together” - Eliza
Over the course of 2 hours, people from different areas of Stephen and Eliza’s lives came together and found common ground not just in the wedding couple but in finding trash! From a metal pot to plastic water bottles, to a dull machete, the wedding group had an eventful cleanup!
Their love for each other and our river continues to grow
Neither of them have plans to stop protecting or enjoying our local environment. They’re still taking daily walks in the community in Alexandria and many weekends of the year head over to Turkey Run Park for a relaxing hike.
Plus, Stephen is continuing to lead cleanups throughout the Potomac River region to level up his clean water impact. “I still clean up on my own whenever we go around the block with the dogs but knowing I can do these bigger initiatives at these more populated parks has been really amazing.”
