(Photos courtesy Noah Zeichner)
If you drove home past Walking on Logs at the Fauntleroy end of the West Seattle Bridge, you saw their latest theme – a banner and T-shirts for the World Water Week “ideas festival” coming up next Monday through Friday at Chief Sealth International High School.

Important thing to remember: World Water Week kicks off with a big event for the entire community, not just the school – an author, a congressmember, a tribal leader. (More on them in a moment.) Along the bridge this afternoon, on what was an official day off for the school district, young volunteers dressed the sculptures with permission from the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce, which is the official permission-granter for that privilege, conferred only on good causes. And earlier, they had an even more-monumental task:

They spent the morning filling water bottles for the Walk for Water next Friday; it will dramatize what millions of people around the world have to go through to get something resembling clean, safe water to their homes and families.

But first, the stage is set for next Monday, and there’s one thing they can’t do without you – fill the Sealth auditorium Monday night for author Robert Glennon‘s 7 pm presentation on “America’s Water Crisis and What to Do About It,” also featuring appearances by Congressmember Jay Inslee and Duwamish Tribe chair Cecile Hansen. There’s a resource fair at 6:15 pm that’ll overflow with information (plus live music and refreshments0, followed by the talk at 7 pm. Here’s the official flyer for the entire evening (all free!).

Earlier Monday, you can get a preview by listening to KUOW (94.9 FM, or you can listen live online at kuow.org), when Glennon will be interviewed along with Molly Freed, the student leader of the World Water Week project at Sealth (working with social-studies teacher Noah Zeichner, following up on their Aspen Ideas Festival trip last year) – she too was filling water jugs today:

Participants in the Walk for Water will carry the jugs – 1 to 5 gallons, for up to 5 kilometers. More details on that next week – but first, mark your calendar for Monday night, to share the new knowledge that’ll be brought to the community as a school expands its education efforts beyond those who attend each day.