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Dear Aunt Kayla,

Mom and Dad say I have to write to you and apologize for getting you so upset that you had to go to the hospital. Mom says you almost had a heart attack when you saw me on CNN waving my protest sign and that your neighbor, Mr. Fitzgibbons, had to call an ambulance to come and get you. In addition to writing you an apology I also have to clean out the garage and paint the downstairs bathroom so be assured that I am being well disciplined from my little mistake. And Dad says I’m grounded for the next two weeks so I won’t have any excuses for not getting those things done.

Mom and Dad weren’t very happy to see me on TV either. Ms. Kuhn, my science teacher, said we failed to get our point across and just looked silly. The principal, Mr. McAdams, is really mad at her because he thinks she put us up to staging the protest in the first place but she didn’t. It was all my idea at first but then Lenny took it over and the others joined in. I should have known it was a bad idea when Lenny insisted on being involved. If we’d left him at home none of this would have happened. Ms. Kuhn said all the people who saw us on the news were probably confused about the issues we were trying to raise. The costume Lenny wore and the fact that he fainted and had to be rescued by the paramedics detracted from the whole point of our protest.

Anyway, Mom says you wanted an explanation of what happened. It all started with a field trip Ms. Kuhn took us on for our science class. Ms. Kuhn is a new teacher and she’s very gung-ho. She makes us do a lot of labs in our class, which is fun but kind of messy, especially since Lenny is my lab partner and he’s always spilling stuff. Next time I’m going to get a neater lab partner.

Ms. Kuhn wanted to teach us about pH for our first lesson this year. pH is a measure of acidity in a solution. If you measure a solution and the pH is between 1 and 7 it’s acidic, if the pH is between 7 and 14 it’s basic. If the pH is right at 7, which is where the pH of water is, the solution is neutral. There is a more complicated explanation for it and, basically, no one knew what she was talking about. So Ms. Kuhn had us bring in a bunch of stuff to test so we could see the pH differences in different products. I brought in some Pepsi and Lenny brought in orange juice for our samples. The girls all brought in stuff like shampoo and skin lotion. Daryl Jenkins brought in his grandmother’s Bromide medicine. She says she needs it to control her seizures and had a fit when she’d found out he’d taken it. Fortunately Ms Kuhn wouldn’t let him test it when she saw the prescription label on it. (Daryl Jenkin’s a regular down in the principal’s office. I heard he’s on a first name basis with all the secretaries.) We measured the pHs of all this stuff but Ms. Kuhn was worried that we still didn’t understand what pH really was (Click here to see the class results). I think this must be something only new teachers worry about. I mean, look at Mr. Cross; he teaches math and no one knows what he’s talking about and he couldn’t care less. But then, he’ll be retiring soon. Mom says Ms. Kuhn is very idealistic and she only hopes that Lenny and I haven’t completely destroyed her faith in teaching.

Last month we had to learn all about soil. Ms. Kuhn made us bring in all different kinds of dirt from all over the town to test in our lab. We had to learn about how soil is formed, what makes it up and how it erodes and all sorts of stuff like that. We did a really neat experiment where we mixed up our soil samples with water and some water softener and measured the percentages of sand, silt and clay in each sample. (Click here to see the experiment) Ms. Kuhn was really interested in thedifferent pHs of the soils we brought in. She thought maybe if she took us out on a field trip to river where mine drainage comes in it would show us the effects of different pHs in nature and help us finally understand why pH is important.

Ms. Kuhn brought in a whole bunch of pictures about acid mine drainage and made us research the topic on the Web in technology class. (Click here to see some sites we visited) It turns out to be a big problem here in Pennsylvania because when they mined coal they disturbed the earth and left piles of coal leftovers exposed to the air. Now when it rains, the water mixes with the metals and the water becomes acidic and runs off into the steams and onto the farms and changes the pH of the soil. This can also happen when the water runs through the tunnels they dug in the earth to mine the coal. There’s a lot of acid runoff from that too. It’s a very important problem Aunt Kayla! Ms. Kuhn thought it would be a really good idea for us to go out and do some field experiments at Lehigh Gorge Park and see the effects that different pH’s have in the soil and the streams. Of course, since it basically meant a day off from our other classes we were all for it.

Let me just say that the experiments she made us do were really disgusting. First we had to walk two miles along the Lehigh River and take pH measurements with a pH meter. Ms. Kuhn said we had to generate a pH map of the river so we could see where the problems started. Then we had to go around and dig up dirt, sift it, and count the earthworms that live near the two river banks. First along the Lehigh River, where it isn’t contaminated, and then along the banks of Sandy Run, where the water is acidic. (Click here to see the pH map) (Click here to see pH graph) I was totally grossed out but I couldn’t show it because all the girls were there and they kept fussing. Jenny Simmons screamed non-stop when it was her turn to dig. She thought we were just going to look at trees and stuff, not handle a bunch of creepy crawlies. Daryl Jenkins kept cutting the worms in half with the shovel when it was his turn to dig. Some people just can’t resist the urge to act up I guess or maybe he just likes being sent to the principal’s office. Lenny got really upset because he said cutting the worms into pieces would throw the accuracy of our count off and Ms. Kuhn was very particular about how we conducted this experiment.

We had to dig for our worms and get water and soil samples at two different spots. One was in Sandy Run which has three mines dumping into it. The other was at the Lehigh River, above where Sandy Run joins it. The Lehigh River is contaminated from the acid run off too but not as badly as the Sandy Run creek. Mrs. Kuhn said it wasn’t a perfect experiment. Ideally we should have sampled a river that had no acid contamination but she hadn’t been able to find one. That should tell you what a big problem this is! You could really see the differences in the pH between the two streams when we tested our water samples back in class.

When we finished counting everything up we found that the ground near to Sandy Run had fewer earthworms in it than the ground around the Lehigh River. (To see our worm count click here.) Ms. Kuhn kept asking us about why there were fewer worms in the ground around the Sandy Run creek. She said the worms couldn't survive in dirt that has too much acid or a very low pH. Jenny Fielding said that was okay because she thought that the worms were really gross anyway so it was fine with her if there were fewer of them. Ms. Kuhn got very upset about that and told us earthworms are very important. Earthworms eat dead leaves and rotting plants and grind all this stuff up in their gizzards and what comes out the other end becomes food for plants. (I’m not trying to gross you out Aunt Kayla; I’m just repeating what Ms. Kuhn said.) The worms tunnel though the soil looking for food and break up the earth which allows air and water to circulate though the ground and get to the plants. You can actually tell how healthy soil is by the number of earthworms it contains. Mrs. Kuhn said that earthworms are very important to the soil and to the plants and that’s makes them very important to all of us. I’ll admit she was pretty convincing. Jenny Fielding looked almost guilty for asking her question when Ms. Kuhn finished her speech but she still said she thought the earthworms were gross when the teacher turned her back.

So how did I get into so much trouble from taking water samples and counting worms? Hold on Aunt Kayla, I have to tell it all or you won't understand. But I still maintain that this thing was all Lenny's fault. You see, in Mr. Jones class (He is our social studies teacher by the way) we were required to give a presentation on some government agencies. It just figures that Lenny got assigned the E.P.A. That stands for “Environmental Protection Agency.” Lenny was so worked up about Mrs. Kuhn's speech on the protection of worms, soil and water sources that he started asking Mr. Jones all kinds of questions about how to fix what had happened to the Sandy Run creek and the Lehigh River. Mr. Jones was really interested in our results and he made us do a project on the problems of abandoned mines in our area. Mr. Jones is very big on civic duty and citizen involvement. He’s always telling us about protests he attended in the 60’s. (I don’t know why teachers think we kids are interested in stuff like this but they do.)

You could tell that Mr. Jones was really psyched that Lenny was so excited and soon Lenny had the whole class talking about what we could do. Mr. Jones gave us lot of choices: write a letter to our congressman, circulate a petition to have the site cleaned up or write to the newspaper. Lenny asked if we could design a web page with our lab results and Mr. Jones said that would be okay as long as Mrs. Travis, the technology teacher, kept an eye on our project. We posted all our results from Mrs. Kuhn’s class complete with photographs of the earthworms. We made sure to point out who was responsible, namely the company that abandoned this old mine. We used graphic software that we learned in Mrs. Travis’ class to make these really awesome Mad magazine style graphics. Samantha made an animated graphic of worms using the company logo. It looked really cool with the worms all writhing around from the toxic effects from the chemicals. The company’s name is Chem-co. So I made up the slogans, "Say No to Chem-Co! Farmers can't hoe, thanks to Chem-Co. Just Go Chem-Co!" This is where the trouble began. After we had posted our protest web site, we had a meeting in the principal’s office. I had never even been inside the principal's office!

Of course we were in a lot of trouble even though we were trying to do something good. I mean Mrs., Kuhn, Mr. Jones, and Mrs. Travis all seem excited our project. But Principal McAdams told us that we couldn't publish our web page without any proof. We told him we had the results from Mrs. Kuhn's experiments but he said that wasn’t good enough. (Even though we had gotten an A on the project!) He also was talking about lawyers and how the school could get into trouble because of our website and it was illegal to go messing around with a company’s logo. Aunt Kayla, we were only telling the truth! You should have seen how mad Lenny got. He said he’d mess up any logo he wanted if the company was going to mess up everyone’s environment. And then Mrs. Kuhn took Mr. McAdams' side against us! At first, Lenny almost cried and then I really thought Lenny was going to burst into tears or have a swearing fit or something right there in the principal’s office. We all felt pretty bad. And Daryl Jenkins was out in the hallway smirking at us the whole time. (I think I told you that he’s a regular at the principal’s office, didn’t I?)

We had a secret meeting after school, me Samantha, Lenny and Janine, and that is when, we decided that if the school wouldn't support a good cause, we didn't need them. Perhaps cutting school wasn't such a good idea after all, but we didn't even want to look at Mrs. Kuhn or Mr. Jones if possible. Maybe they don’t really care about the environment after all but we sure do! So that is when Lenny said we should stage a protest so everyone would know about how our water is being polluted. We snuck out during assembly on Friday.

It took us twenty minutes to get down to City Hall on the bus. You should have seen the looks we got. On the way out of school Lenny had grabbed some chains from the janitor's closet, his lock on his locker, and that is when he changed into the squirrel suit you saw on TV. I guess his uncle owns a costume shop. (Lenny always did have the most elaborate Halloween outfits of anyone in the neighborhood. Last Halloween he went trick-or-treating as a Lobster.). People on the bus moved as many seats away from us as possible. Even we didn't really want to sit next to Lenny. The rest of us had made signs with my slogan on them but none of us had agreed to chain ourselves to the front door of city hall. That was sort of a spur of the moment decision for me, Janine and Samantha.

The Mayor was inside City Hall giving a press conference so that is why the press was there. We blocked entrance and started yelling for all we were worth. The security guard came out and told us to get out of there and walked back in. We didn't know then he was making a call to our school. Lenny was really starting to freak out about how nobody cared about our cause and that is when he decided that we get more attention if we chained ourselves to the front doors. So that's what we did. Who knew that Lenny was such a spaz that he would forget his own combination? He said he was making a statement and wouldn't unlock us on account of principle, but when he passed out we figured that was all just baloney. Between you and me Aunt Kayla, the worst part was I had to go to the bathroom and that dummy, (you guess it) Lenny, just refused to let me go! If he had maybe I wouldn't have got caught.

Well, as you know, the press finished up with the Mayor and then tried to come out the front entrance of the building. They got one look at us and started filming. We figured this was just the opportunity Mr. Jones was talking about to get the message out to people so we yelled louder. I think at least a few of us were yelling to be unchained as well. The rest you pretty much know. Mom saw us on T.V. during her lunch break and called Dad. Before my parents could get there though we had to face Mr. McAdams. I didn't even know there were that many veins in someone's neck. He was so mad. Yet he somehow managed to laugh our little incident off to the press, but Lenny was calling him an eco-terrorist in the background. What ever that means. Lenny made sure to mention that Mr. McAdams didn't support our website and therefore didn't care about nature or the environment at all. That’s when one of the reporters shoved a microphone in Mr. McAdams face and started asking him a bunch of questions about the first amendment. I felt a little sorry for the principal then. Mr. McAdams is used to yelling at people, not being yelled at himself. It’s not so bad for us kids, I mean, in a way we’re used to it, but you could see that Mr. McAdams was out of practice and started sweating like crazy right there on national TV.

It was just about then that we noticed Lenny didn't look so hot. Everything happened so fast. I guess it must have been over hundred degrees in that suit, it being a warm spring day and all and the zipper to his costume had gotten jammed. So while Mr. McAdams was sweating and stammering through his interview Lenny passed out right in back of him. I don’t know why everybody thought it was so funny to see a kid in a squirrel costume with a protest sign pass out while chained to the door of City Hall, but they did. One of Mom’s friends told me it was really surreal, whatever that means. I don't care if I never see that clip again.

The security guard had finally managed to find a pair of bolt cutters, but it was just a little too late for our dear pal, Lenny. We were cut loose from the doors and taken back to school as quickly as possible. Frankly that was fine with me because I was beyond embarrassed at this point. I don't even want to sit next to Lenny ever again. Principal McAdams was so upset he could barely speak to us. I felt really bad about getting him in trouble with the press. He really is a very nice person but I think it’s gross how he guzzles Maloxx right out of the bottle.

Honestly, we were trying to get people to care about the pH problem caused by Chem-co but everyone was too busy laughing at us to listen. I can't believe Lenny got me into this mess in the first place. We should have just forgotten about the whole thing. Mom says we went about it all wrong.

I am really sorry that you were upset, Aunt Kayla. I hope you are okay and this letter helps explain what happened. You should know it’s the longest letter I ever written in my life (it took me three entire Saturdays, Dad kept making me add more and making me spell check) so maybe that makes up for it a little. still have to do the garage and dinner is ready so I better get going.

Hope you are feeling better.

Love,

Steve