Dear Mud Monster,
One day at school we got an assignment to read about you in the newspaper.  After that assignment we wanted to help spread the word about helping the Sound too.  How can we spread the word to help out in our part?  What can kids like us do to help?
What do you plan to do after this project is complete? Do you have any ideas for these projects?
Thank You!
 
Bryennah Johnson and Stephanie Sisson,
Ms. Christie Brown’s Class
Parkside Elementary, Highline

Hello Bryennah and Stephanie!

Thanks for writing me! First of all, I'd like to send a big thank you to Ms. Christie Brown, for giving you such a creative assignment. Second of all, I’d like to invite you (and your entire class) to the Sustainable Solstice Festival at Gasworks Park on Saturday, June 16th, where I’ll be roaming around with my muddy entourage, enjoying the festival and spreading the word about MudUp. I always love to meet my fans!

As for how you can help, wow, thanks for asking! It’s wonderful when young people take such an active interest in helping the environment. There’s actually a lot that you can do to help out. MudUp is a grassroots effort, which means that it’s all about individuals taking action and telling all their friends and family, who then take action, and then tell their friends and family, until everybody helps out however they can, and the Sound is finally clean again, and I get to go home!

So, what exactly can you do to help? If you look at the Activity Calendar at mudup.org, you’ll find all kinds of MudUp events and activities, all of which are helpful to the Sound in one way or another. No matter how muddy you want to get, we’ve got plenty of great activities for you to choose from. And lots of our activities are very kid-oriented (we’ve got treasure hunts, beach walks, and much more), so you’ll be guaranteed a great time if you look for the little “family-friendly” icon when you’re reading through the different activities. You should also look out for the Mud Monster icon, because that’s where I’ll be showing up!

Some other things that you can do to help:

1)    Take the Mud Pledge (at the upper right on the homepage at mudup.org), and encourage everyone you know to take the pledge as well.
2)    Share your own Sound Stories with us — we’d love to have your voice heard.
3)     Download the “Lost” poster of me from the “Mud Community” section of the site, and put it up around your local community — at the library, at local shops, or anyplace you think people might look.
4)    And finally, check out the “Things you can do” section of the site, to learn about more ways you can help the Sound.

It took a million small changes to make the Sound sick, and it will take a million more to bring it back to health. You are an important part of the change that needs to happen. And even by taking this first step and asking me a question, you have already done something to help the Sound, because other people will be able to read this column and hopefully get inspired to take action of their own!

Hope to meet you and all your friends at lots of MudUp activities this summer! Be sure to introduce yourselves — we can get a picture together and I’ll put it right up on this column! And in the fall, I’ll be coming around to schools and talking to kids about what they can do to help Puget Sound, so be on the lookout for me!

(Oh, and after this project — MudUp — is complete, I plan to go back home to my beloved shorelines. But it’s going to take a number of years and lots of hard work to get to that point. And that’s where you come in!)