"Boat House Buddies:" Teaching kids about the oil spill

For many Gulf Coast residents, 2010 was defined by oil, and images from the summer are not easily forgotten.

"It just brought tears to our eyes," said Melanie Houseknecht of Spanish Fort. "There are so many children and families that are affected by this, and we didn't know how the children would react to what happened."

That concern kept Spanish Fort resident and Houseknecht's co-worker Karen Thomason awake at night. Then inspiration struck.

"The title, Boat House Buddies came to me," recalled Thomason. "I just started thinking about it. Came up with the idea of some characters, children that were affected by the oil and how they dealt with it."

The Budding Buddies

The Boat House Buddies is a 10-part series of children's books developed by Thomason and three Bass Pro Shop co-workers, Houseknecht, Ilene Baskette, and Elva Simpson.

"We talked about different things, getting on clean-up crews, but that didn't seem up our alley," said Baskette, who always dreamed of writing a childrens' book.

"I got into work and was talking to the girls about it. They started letting the idea develop from there," said Thomason.

Simpson added, "Each one of us had ideas, and we would say, 'Okay, you do this, and I'm gonna try this.' It's just like one pushing the other saying, 'I can handle that part well. I'll do that part,' and then we all we're going by the seat of our pants!"

The books, which were privately published, follow a group of kids, including Sandcastle Sally, Jet Ski Jimmy, and Gizmo Geek, as they learn about the impact oil has had on their beach, what it's done to their seafood, how it's affected the wildlife, what they can do to help.

"We never expected it to get this far, but because we worked together and pushed each other, it's in print!" exclaimed Thomason.

The first book is called "Coming Together," a fitting title for the real life buddies.

"We got the books out of the series, but we've got some great little friendships out of it too."

A new chapter that's yet to be written.

The books are dedicated to the victims of the Deepwater Horizon explosion.

Where To Get It

Two of the books have been published. The authors hope to print all ten by the anniversary of the spill. The books cost $7.95 and are available at the Five Rivers Delta Center Gift Shop, Shoefly in Fairhope, and the Foley Art Center.

A portion of the proceeds benefit organizations such as the Mobile Baykeepers and the Dauphin Island Sea Lab. Thomason says they've already sold 500 copies.