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Dec. 28, 2000 ... in the Leelanau Enterprise, good deeds in 2000:
Suttons Bay Montessori School's graduating Class of 2000
is the recipient of the
"Woodsy Owl",
"Give a Hoot, don't pollute"
award
for the week-long trek along the coast of the Leelanau Peninsula
during which loads of trash was collected.
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Oct 21, 2000 ... from Esther in Prague, Czech Republic :
Hello! After several months, I am still very proud of
the Montessori's crazy former 6th grade!
Hilary, Anna, Trevor, Todd, Ken and that cute little Ellen
are my heros!
Much love from across the globe in Prague,
Esther
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Oct 3, 2000 ... from Dianne in Charlevoix, MI :
Ken, thank you for posting The Hike story and photos.
What an inspiration it was to follow the journey!
(you know, you may have a "publishable book" there! Have you considered
approaching one of the Conservancies? Or a Nature/Environmental magazine to
publish the story? It's inspirational, educational, fun!)
What struck me most, aside from knowing I'll never "ahhhhh" again at the sight
of free-floating balloons, was the diligence and determination of the kids
to achieve their goals and to have great fun doing it! We should all
approach life with such a purpose and attitude!
Congratulations and thank you to all who participated in The Hike. What a
tremendous service you provided for our environment. You made our world a
better place -- in many ways.
Best to All of You,
Dianne
Ken answers:
Thanks Dianne, the book idea has been suggested by a few folks now.
I've not contacted any publications other than our local press ...
but the group would consider a project like that if there was financial help available.
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Sept. 28, 2000 ... from Susan K. in Suttons Bay, MI :
Hey!!! this is the best you guys, great pics and great verbage.
Yeah to all!!!!
susan k.
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Sept. 2000 ... Connie from Colorado writes:
How did you rig up the trash carrying stuff--is it just a backpack lined with a trash bag?
Did everyone carry them? Were they heavy?
What did you do when they were full?
Ken answers:
When Trevor and I were first thinking about the trip and hit on the idea to pick up trash, we toyed with the idea of pulling something like a trailer (bike trailer like), so we could haul the bags and any 'treasure' we might find ... in fact Dave Monstrey had offered us a trailer that he had designed just for beach hauling(it had balloon type wheels to 'float' over the sand and 'bounce' over the rocks). Trevor and I had rigged it to use, we thought it'd be pretty cool, we had a large tub underneath to put our packs in and a board on top to put the trash ... all we'd have to do is hike and take turns pulling/pushing that rig ... ha! with hind sight, I'm glad we didn't take it. There were spots that the terrain was _large_ rocks for miles, or swamp like muck that it would have been too much of a task to haul a trailer, let alone just walk ourselves!
Instead, I found an old frame backpack that I took the nylon off of it and it had a cool bar that when a bag was inserted and clamped on, the bar held the opening open! worked like a charm and was fun to rig after filling a bag.
We all took turns and the turns were all different. Sometimes we were lucky enough(like on the first day when Gail came with us) to have a visitor along ... then we'd usually 'let' them carry the pack as a 'treat' ... they loved it! When there were just the 6 of us, one would carry the trash pack and the others would take turns carrying the TTPs(trash pack person) pack.
On the east side of the Peninsula, while we were close to the road, when we'd fill a bag, we'd put it up on the road and the POD(parent on duty) would cruise the road looking for yellow bags and miscellaneous suspicious piles of trash along the way. The POD would pick up the stuff and take it back to theSuttons Bay School where Waste Management(who also supplied the bags to us!)had positioned a dumpster just for our 'booty'.
When we got on the west side of the peninsula, it was a different story and a different hike, as we were not near roads and a lot of the beach was below bluffs, so we ended up carrying trash bags sometimes 3 miles until we could get to a spot that we could leave the trash and call the POD to 'come and get it'
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Connie from Colorado writes:
How many years’ worth of trash do you think you picked up?
Ken answers:
Being that the storms are always bringing in trash from the open water, there's really no way to know, for the most part I think the trash was pretty 'fresh',unless we were working the high water mark and then the trash was definitely older, rusted beer cans. The aluminum ones don't rust.
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Connie from Colorado writes:
What was the weirdest, funniest, grossest, ugliest, oldest, saddest, most ?beautiful thing that you found?
Ken answers:
I liked when we found beach graffiti, not trash but an obvious sign of life. Like the 'stone sun'.
'Grossest' for me, were some of the partially decayed birds that we found, a loon,a seagull and then there was the skeleton of what looked like a dog.
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Connie from Colorado writes:
Did you save anything? Did you keep anything for yourself?
Did you find anything you wished you could keep?
Ken answers:
I saved a vinyl panel that looked like it came off a life seat and says "Blue Fin" and I found some cool fishing net with sinkers and floats that I gave to Bill(Anna's Dad) for a shoe rental fee. (my boots collapsed and I 'borrowed' a set of his ... thanks Judy!) And, I had the POD one day save the large bouys we collected(thought I'd add them to my yard display) and ended up giving them as 'end of trip' trophies to the kids(though I was one short, I had saved one of Trevor's favorite 'drag toys'(the bottle on the rope) and presented that to him ... he thought it was pretty cool that I had saved it for him ... :] ... there was lots of drift wood and a number of trash deals that I would liked to have saved for yard 'art', but couldn't keep it all. (and I think Bill and Judy got tired of sorting my 'treasures' from the trash when they hauled it out. Seemed they were always the POD's when I would fine 'cool' stuff.)
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Connie from Colorado writes:
What do you know now that you didn’t know before about the lake … ?
Ken answers:
I saw evidence of what a few environmental folks had mentioned about algae growing at the edge of developed properties from the overflow of fertilizer into the lake.
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Connie from Colorado writes:
What was the most peaceful moment you had?
Ken answers:
When the kids would finally 'conk' out and I could let the Dad in me go ... early mornings were great too, especially at the Powels' beach when it was just me, a cup of coffee and a carp in shallow water flip flopping around for about an hour before everyone rose for the day. Aaahhh
(photo#1025 on day 1)
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Connie from Colorado writes:
You stayed at a lot of people’s houses. Tell about one really great time you ?had at someone’s house.
Ken answers:
It was at the Connolly's house and we were in the gazebo, after swimming and after the telephone interview with the Leelanau Enterprise ... they started a game called the UnGame where you draw a card and it gives you a life situation and you are to express how you would handle it ... it took a little while, but they let their guards down and were sharing some heartfelt thoughts and all with me sitting there(I was attempting to journal and they were at first concerned that I was recording their 'shareations', which I assured them that I would not abuse their trust like that, but that I would wonder too. So there they were, being 'true to themselves' kids with each other ... and I was accepted to the point that I wasn't there ... a fly in the midst of teen honesty with each other ... whew ... I wanted to get 'snapshots' for all the parents so I could say 'look-it here, this is your son/daughter with their guard let down, and they would 'protect' each other if another might try to say something derogatory about anything ...whhhh ... thanks you guys, I really appreciated that evening ... and they didn't want to quit the game once they got going, 'just one more round Ken?', how can you say no to that? . . .
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Ken's thank you note to the businesses that 'leant a hand':
The Shoreline Hike
A note of thanks for your assistance in making the trip a reality.
The kids learned a lot about their feet, each other,
rocks vs sand(as a walking surface!),
balloon strings(the number one, Most Picked Up Piece Of Trash we encountered),
plastic straws(the number two MPUPOT),
the coordination factor that goes into a trip like this,
cell phone usefulness and reception factors,
the kindness of strangers met along the way
(esp. when the temps are in the 90’s and the water bottle is on “E”),
the effects of a Lake Michigan ‘blow’ on a tent staked in sand with traditional ground stakes!,
a new appreciation for PB&J sandwiches,
what it’s like to carry a bag of beach trash
(usually wet and sandy, adding to the weight factor) a mile or so to find a place to drop it off,
the question “should we continue to pick up trash even though it’s soo much work and we are getting behind on our ‘hiked miles logged’” ... which always came back as a majority vote of yes !
but most of all they learned about their own strengths and the value of friendships.
Thank you for contributing to the reality factor of this wonderful excursion !
Ken Scott
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This section, "the Hike", was voted 
by the Northern Michigan Journal !
10-9-2000
Hey Hey, we came in second for the Site of the Year award!
Thank you to all who voted!
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