Where Oh Where is Fred?

It's me, Fred....Saved like the Ocean

by my buddies at Skookum Recycling

and Jefferson County Solid Waste.

Even got saved from TIGERS, no doubt sent here

for photo opportunity by friend Tom and the Cougar Fund?

Oaky, maybe not, but you know,

These men and women at the recycling

(working for great friend, Matt Hall)

keep millions and millions

of deadly plastics out of the Chimacum Creek Watershed,

Strait of Juan de Fuca,

and the beautiful Pacific Ocean.

Gotta go have fresh halibut from neighbors, Brian and Connie.

I love halibut and all seafood.

I thank Skookum and all Garbage Collectors and

Landfill Workers for making the halibut tasty and healthy.

Stay tuned for sad news. Got that today too.......a huge spill

of micro plastics along East Side of Marrowstone Island!

Strange how everyone thinks there is only one spill at a time?

Fred. Back from Hawaii where the Marines are in control of 

GREENING PLANET EARTH! 

Searching for Mokapu......Where oh Where Can She be?

Eddie gets tangled up in cargo net

after wiping out on his new surfboard, shaped for him

by Tom Wegener of Australian waterman fame.

But, kids of Mokapu are

MEAN, GREEN, FIGHTING MACHINES

and like all Marines, they rescued Eddie

just like his namesake, Eddie Aikau, rescued many surfers

up on the north shore.........

Eddie Surfs to Oahu.

As illustrated by students for:

COUGAR TALES (http://www.cougarfund.org/ )

Mokapu Elementary, Oahu

Marine Corps Base, HAWAII.

Image from the BIG BOOK,

Copyright, Parents and Students of Mokapu Elementary,

Pals of the Pacific, and The Cougar Fund.

Contact Michelle Kaskovich for permissions.

MOKAPU, MOKAPU, WHERE ARE YOU...........

In the Highest Traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service, Mokapu Elementary is not only lean and green, it's a true fighting machine, out to rid the ocean and land (Kai i ka Aina) of all forms of human insult. I had the honor of working with the sons and daughters of our enlisted men and women who are stationed at and serve from Marine Corps Base, HAWAII at the special place called Mokapu, on the Island of Oahu.

For those of you interested in United States military history, this was the very first place bombed on December 7, 1941 just prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Brave Marines and Navy personnel gave their lives here and fought valiantly.........And long before this battle, Mokapu was a most sacred place in Hawaiian creation story.......It was here that the first man was created (See works of Mary Kawena Pukui to learn more of this history tied to the creation of Pihemanu and all the islands.)

Books could also be written to tell the incredible history of how Mokapu and Marine Corps Base Hawaii is becoming a world leader in turning an entire community Green. As a very small part of this much larger effort, The Cougar Fund and the Marine Corps Family allowed me to work with artist and gifted teacher, Michelle Kaskovich. Michelle and her fellow marines, parents, teachers, and super staff at Mokapu School teamed together to create a working environment like no other. As a hint of things to come, where else could you tell the story of a cougar while young artists paint a life size whale on the school grounds to the tunes strummed on a unkulele by a young Kai Kane (ocean guy)?

We brought the wonder of Mokapu and Eddie, two Cougars (aka Puma and Mountain Lion) into the lives of kids who have family in Afghanistan and Iraq. They had fun and learned while they helped continue a story begun in Rhode Island and Breidablik, Washington. It is a story you will soon read and enjoy through sight and sound and writings of kids sharing how they see their world from Mountain Top to flowing rivers, and beyond to the much broader and vast waters of our one ocean.

It seems that Mokapu has many meanings, many faces and our little Mokapu the Cougar fell snout over paws for a surfing Cougar by the name of Eddie. They must have met at Brown University in RI or over a bowl of chowder and some stuffies at Duffy's. No matter. They parted company briefly and Eddie hopped a tramp steamer or a schooner and headed south, then west and north to meet up with his buddy Fred and Fred's many other friends (FOF). Moli the Wandering Albatross was one of these FOF's and according to some kids, Moli spotted Eddie surfing after his boat ride ended after a confrontation with pirates.

Hard to follow? Stay tuned and the kids will take over and allow you to enter the magical world where no one dies, where no one cries - the land of make believe. Okay, our funding partners also asked that kids teach us some science and ecology too, so you will soon see how kids have been teaching "Art and Ecology" with Cougars as icons representing the entire Mainland and many FOF's representing ponds, lakes, streams, rivers, estuaries, and, of course, the OCEAN.

Funny how this all came together and if you are lucky to meet up with Fred and his buddies, you will soon find out that Cougars are vital for the survival of all life, just as sea turtles and salmon are critical for aquatic systems to function. More importantly, you ought to take the time to ask kids from Rhode Island, Ohio, Washington, Wyoming, Oahu, Australia, South Africa, Great Britain, and many other places --- "Mokapu, Mokapu, Where are You?".........the sometimes silly, but always sacred trust we put in our children shines in this gentle story that combines creativity of many people. And, the special thanks to the US Marine Corps, the Parents of Mokapu Students, The Cougar Fund, and a tiny non-profit known as POP - Pals of the Pacific. POP is now home of Friends of Fred and busy as it might be, takes the time to think and act locally and globally on behalf of all creatures and their home, planet earth.

Marrowstone Island, Springtime 2010    

ALOHA NUI FROM FRED AND FRIENDS !!!

Aloha! It's me, Fred...........As buddy Aminah says, me and Ron have been traveling! What fun this springtime.

So. Here is a bit of catchup for the hotdog of life...........life with Fred and Friends. Most important, little buddy Nichol is looking GOOD and WELL and HAPPY now that tides are low and the table is set as we say here in the Pacific Northwest. Clams, Crab, and Oysters are sooooo good this time of year and we made great seafood chowder the other day from a special mussel patch down on Oak Bay.

Better yet, Brother in Law, Phil and Nephew, Brian and us got to see the FIRST EVER SUCCESSFUL little baby kelp plant growing right at Marrowstone Point Kelp Restoration site. So, Big Thanks to all keiki from Wolfle, Gordon, and Home Schoolers who have helped. This is special for buddy Ray --- we named the kelp forest in his honor since he taught Ron how to figure out the way to bring this most important plant back to the Point where just the other day we say TWO ORCAS!!! Yip! Oh, and just last week we saw gray whales just around this corner of our island! BIG YIP from me, Fred.

Okay. So, a tiny update on our travels and fun from the Mountain Rainier Top, down the Puyallup River to Commencement Bay where huge recycling down on the waterfront is best in whole world! HUGE STACKS OF METAL, BINS FILLED WITH BOTTLE CAPS TO BE RE-PURPOSED, AND TONS AND TONS OF TRASHTIC BEING TURNED INTO NEW PRODUCTS and more important, JOBS for people of the world.

We got to make big books at Browns Point Elementary by the recycling place! Way Cool Kids and Parents and teachers! This is same school where two good buddies of Ron attended back in the 60s! Old Ron has Old Friends Jeff and Laura (Laura and Ron were just about very first to graduate from UWashington Wildlife School! Hmmmm.......Laura was first Woman to have that honor and she has worked for the wildlife and wildplaces of Washington for a long time.

Been also to the most sacred mountain top in Hawaiian Islands, Mokapu.....A special honor to be sure where me and friend, Eddie the Cougar and Mokapu the Cougar were sent by THE COUGAR FUND and the US MARINES to help keiki make world's very first life size sculpture of not just one, but TWO WHALES made from bottle caps......Oh, did I say that some of the bottle caps came from BREIDABLIK ELEMENTARY!!! Big Mahalo Mary Fox and teachers and parents and kids at Breidablik. Mokapu keiki got special letter from PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, thanking them for all the hard work they have done to help make kids aware of plastic in the ocean........

MOKAPU ELEMENTARY is where enlisted Marine and Navy parents now serving in the wars send their keiki to be learning with most wonderful teachers, Kapuna Lei Mokihana, staff, volunteer moms and dads, way cool custodians, girls in the office, and much more community. Mokapu Marine Base Hawaii is also under the command of awesome Commander Robert Rice who is turning the entire base GREEN!! also under the direction of General John Broadmeadow, a most kind and gracious man and leader of forces in the Pacific.

Me, Fred, got to hang out with the Marines and we woke with the sun each day to go to the beach where we picked up trashtic for Mokapu Elementary art. We made big book so big with help from soft strumming of young Kai Kane Newall who sang Brother Iz tunes while playing his Uk. Big keiki helping little keiki add art under direction of Drill Sargeant Michelle "Matisse" Kaskovich who is oh so special lady and mom and artist of greatness and humility. Her own family made so much possible for our special time with 850 students here on the windward side between Kailua Town and Kaneohe (where friend Tammy lives and works too!. Oh what a small small world after all!

Did I mention that me, Fred got to be held in arms of Stanley, special friend at BOW LAKE ELEMENTARY at SEATAC, Washington? Yep! Stanley and many other young friends added much to the Cougar Tale Project, funded by the http://www.cougarfund.org/ and over seen by me, Fred and Friends from Rhode Island who started Mokapu and Eddie on their long, long, long journey.........over land to the Snake River with buddy, Moli, a Wandering Albatross and over sea, around Cape Horn, all the way to Breidablik with a little Trashtic Whale and Riverbox from Wyandot.............good grief, my friends are busy.....Traveling, Traveling. But Stanley took time to talk story with me and buddy Ron. Turns out, Stanley's family is from American Samoa and a bunch of his friends are from, guess where, Pacific Island home of me, Fred, the Happy Eye Monkey!!!!!!!!!!!

I think I will send a little note of thanks to President Barack and say how nice it has been to have him lead our country and have so many wonderful schools and leaders like Commander Rice --- generous and kind leaders, strong ones too..........with special Kuleana to make Planet Earth Green and Clean. All with help from the Mean, Lean, Fighting Machines of GREEN POWER, the United States Marine Corps! So, if you have a hard time picking me, Fred, from the greening growth of spring, it is because I have gone camo! That way I can get good photos for all keiki of friend, Cougar, Albatross, Orca, Brown Bear, Moli the Laysan, Little buddy Redfooted Booby and ALL FRIENDS OF FRED NOW TRAVELING EARTH TO (as buddy old Young singer guy says, 'TO PLANT MOTHER NATURE'S SILVER SEED IN NEW PLACES NEEDING HELP UNDER THE SUN."    Marrowstone Island, May 7th 2010 almost Mom Day and almost time to go visit Evelyn and Dr Mary Sheridan, and friends Sue, Sharon, Susan (who hey......also sent Friend of Fred, Beaver, to young Joe here on island where Joe and Dad, Marty and family are restoring a very special salmon Stream for local fishermen! Big Thanks to Susan and to all Marrowstoners for their help with this project!