Monday, July 5, 2010

Traveling with the Blue Legacy Expedition

Today I have the opportunity to jump on the National Geographic Expedition bus and join Blue Legacy as they leave Minnesota to head to Colorado. The crew with Alexandra Cousteau as the Nat Geo Expedition leader, spent Saturday and Sunday in the Twin Cities interviewing water groups and attending a special tour of the Minnesota Twins Stadium. The Twins Stadium has a fabulous water saving system in place developed by Pentair. Pentair has provide a system that recycles and reuses the water once cleaned. The water is used to clean the stadium, and water the fields, cutting traditional water usage by at least 50%. Quite amazing and innovative! Our thanks to Kevin Smith of the Twins, and Todd Gleason from Pentair for leading the tour on a beautiful Saturday in July! We know how precious these Saturdays are.

Ms. Cousteau also took the time to interview several of our H2O for Life Schools. Students and teachers had an opportunity to tell her about their school projects. There were many wonderful displays.

On Saturday, July 4, H2O for Life attended an event hosted by Blue Legacy at Powderhorn Park in Minneapolis. We invited families to make a table top aquifer (the pdf will be available online for a fall science project) and we also provided a World Cup Toilet Bowl event where people tried to kick a soccer ball through a toilet seat. The prize? A photo seated on our PINK toilet seat! We had a few winners. It was not an easy task. Our goal was to remind people that over 2 billion people in the United States don't have access to adequate sanitation.

So.... TodayI had the chance to chat with the photographers, the vidiographers, the sound guy, the production crew and Alexandra Cousteau. They are all amazing and have wonderful stories to tell. I feel very lucky to be able to participate in this wonderful event. The crew includes people from Australia, France, Montana, Oklahoma, DC and New York- and one Minnesotan! We had a great time visiting on the bus. Actually, they all worked hard all day, while I visited!

We are parked for the evening in Kearney, Nebraska. Following a relaxing dinner, several of the crew were back at work, and others like me are on our way to bed. Tomorrow morning, we'll head to Denver where I will exit the bus while they continue to several days of filming in Boulder, CO. H2O for Life hopes to reconnect with Blue Legacy during their 135 day journey through another visit or two, and we also hope to connect some of our schools with Alexandra through Skype to conduct online video opportunities. If you wish to participate, contact m,H2O for Life and we'll work to set this up for your school. (info@h2oforlifeschools.org)
Also, remember, It is time to choose a school partner in a developing country for your next year's H2O for Life project. We hope you are having a wonderful summer.

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