April 13, 2004 > Mission Creek Celebration Slated for April 24th

by Joyce Blueford

Are you ready for a 1/2 mile walk along Mission Creek? On Saturday, April 24th from 9:30-3:30 pm everyone will have the opportunity to walk a .5 mile stretch of Mission Creek while learning about plants, animals, water, and other ecological principles. Mission Rotary Club, Sulfur Creek, Tri-City Ecology, City of Fremont, Union Sanitary District, and BFI and others will have booths lining the newly refurbished walkway so children can make headbands, sort reptiles and amphibians, make bubbles and much more. Funding from this event is primarily from the California Department of Water Resources, Urban Streams Program, Alameda County Public Works, and Math Science Nucleus.

The morning will include opening ceremonies at Hopkins Junior High. Guests will be able to look at the winners of the Nature Photography contest sponsored by Math Science Nucleus and Photogenesis Club of Fremont. This display will be open to the public during the celebration.

Mission Creek is a waterway that flows from Mt. Alison to Lake Elizabeth. It passes along Mill Creek Road and by Mission San Jose, and is joined by Vargas Creek under I-680. It flows behind homes until it reaches Palm Ave and passes along Mission San Jose High School, Chadbourne Elementary School, and Hopkins Junior High School. It crosses Driscoll Rd and near Gomes Elementary School and then flows along Lake Elizabeth until it merges into Laguna Creek. From the fall of 2003 until winter of 2004 the section of Mission Creek between Palm Ave and Driscoll Rd. was restored. This work included rebuilding eroded banks, removing dangerous trees, re-meandering the creek bed to slow the force of the water and removing concrete that lined the channel, replacing it with free boulders and organic erosion control devices.

In advance of the celebration, an animated story of the restoration has been posted on the Math-Science Nucleus website, "Through a Frogs Eye." The story was written by April Yang and Frances Kwong, two Mission High School Students, as part of a story contest conducted by the Math/Science Nucleus and funded by California Department of Water Resources, Urban Streams Program. Math-Science Nucleus has received enthusiastic responses from around the country on the clarity of the subject for elementary students.

For more information about the Mission Creek Celebration please call the Math/Science Nucleus at (510)790-6284. If groups would like to volunteer to help out that day they should contact us. For web links: http://msnucleus.org/mission/celebration.htm
http://msnucleus.org/membership/html/k-6/lc/ntenvn/3/lcne3_6a.html (click on Frog's Eye)