This is Niamh O’Sullivan for Discovery Kids with an interview about the Red River. Featuring the ancient one Vert Bush and P. Uddle a water drop.
Niamh: (to V. Bush)…. when did you first see the Red River and what did you think when you saw it?
V. Bush: Well I first saw the Red River a long time ago when I was just a little seed flying in the wind, searching for my perfect home. When I first saw it I thought, “Wow this is it, the perfect place to make my home. Lots of nice rich soil, birds and other creatures to keep me company and lots of water too!” You see this was a lot of years before people polluted it. The water was still muddy and murky brown but that was fine because we trees love soil. We do however hate garbage and oil and pollution in general. We don’t hate that stuff the way you might hate vegetables (I don’t know why you would ever hate them though) we hate pollution because it kills us. So is that a good answer to your question Niamh?
Niamh: Yes! Yes! It was. I was just thinking how do you talk because it doesn’t look like you have a mouth.
V. Bush: Ummm…. Aren’t we getting off topic here?
Niamh: Well yes I suppose so. P. Uddle do you have the answer to my question?
P. Uddle: Yes I do. I first saw the river centuries ago when the first flood happened. You see a group of water drops like me threw a party but only a few million water drops were invited So I went to the Red River thinking only a few drops would be there. Little did I know that others heard about it. About 50 billion water drops had crashed the party. It was a Welcome Spring party to be held at Lake Winnipeg and the fastest and easiest way to get there was by the Red River. Eager droplets melted quickly forgetting the melt slow rule and soon the River was overflowing its banks. When I first laid eyes on the River I thought, “Wow this is big!” but that was nothing compared to how big the Red river got on the year of 1826, which for your information is the biggest flood of the 19th century.
(The above is an excerpt from a piece written by Niamh O’Sullivan, a grade six student at J.B. Mitchell School in Winnipeg. Her composition was entered in the Rivers West Word and Art Contest celebrating the designation of the Red River as a Canadian Heritage River. Niamh placed third in the Word category of the grades 3-6 section of the contest. This piece grew out of a project at her school on the Red river as part of the Lake
Winnipeg watershed. See the complete version on our website in the near future.)