"Creek Stories" launched, and is floating downstream ...

It’s been a week since we started this summer’s Wappinger Creek Oral History Project – “Creek Stories” -- with a bang, at the 40^th Anniversary Hudson Valley Earth Day Celebration at the Rhinebeck Fairgrounds last Saturday and Sunday. Things are starting to move and flow – indeed it feels like a torrent is about to be unleashed!

It’s exactly the opposite of the old Dutch story of the boy who stopped a flood by plugging up a small hole in a dike with his finger: we are trying to create an opening to allow all the love for and knowing about and relationship with and connections among this Creek and its watershed and its inhabitants to spill forth in a flood that can help to wash away isolation and indifference in our home communities and tie us all together in a network of caring for one another and this place that sustains us.

Craig said something beautiful this morning, as we were lounging and listening to the raindrops: “When you start to talk with people about the Creek, you touch on something close to their hearts, that makes them come alive. There’s a kind of glow that comes over them …"

It’s true.

At the Earth Day Celebration, we collected more than 30 stories about the Creek.

People spoke about childhood memories, stories of adventures and misadventures, fearful tales of pollution and degradation of the Creek, the many animals they have seen, special places where they go to find solace and peace, arcane knowledge of Creek ecology… And each tale was suffused with that glow. It was so very beautiful!

Carolyn Klocker of WIC

Dave Conover's eel

We’ll be traveling throughout the County this summer gathering stories and pictures about the Creek, in preparation for the creation of a book or an art installation or a slide show presentation to share with human inhabitants of the 13 municipalities in this 211 square mile watershed. We’re hoping the news of our love and care will trickle down from them to all the other members of our community – the trees, rocks, plants and animals among whom we make our home.

We're really excited about this project – and would love to include your Creek Story. No story is too small – we are seeing so profoundly how the Creek ties EVERYTHING together! Please be in touch if you have a story to share.

In gratitude, from Mawenawasigh --

Santha