Trinity Trudy is the mascot of Dallas' storm water management department, and it's her job to teach local kids about the dangers of storm water pollution.
But 7-year-old Trinity Trudy has been looking a little long in the tooth. So city officials are planning a makeover for their animated insect to elevate her profile. They hope to create quite a buzz, according to a report in the Dallas Morning News.
Trinity Trudy's makeover is part of a larger outreach and public awareness campaign that the department launched last year to educate Dallas residents about storm water issues.
But one bugging question remains: Can a cartoon dragonfly make kids – or anyone else – care about storm drain management?
"It's not a sexy topic, no," said Gayden Day, who helped Dallas put a new face on Trinity Trudy. "But the concerns about water quality in the city – we haven't raised those issues enough with our children."
Officials said kids – and most adults – don't understand the city's storm water system, which uses drain inlets to remove water runoff from city streets and dump it into the nearest creek, river or lake.
"Storm water is not treated," said Sophia Iliadou Harvey, a senior engineer and manager of the department's outreach team. "So when someone takes their leftover paint and drops it down the drain on their street, they don't realize that it goes directly into a creek or lake."
And that's where Trinity Trudy flies in.
As a dragonfly nymph, she's an immature form of the insect that needs clean water to live in. She was first drawn in 1999 by Tamara Elliott, a former storm water department employee, as a way to use animation to teach children good storm-drain etiquette while they are still young.
"We all then voted on the name Trinity Trudy," Elliott wrote in an e-mail from Iraq, where she is now working on a water purification system. "Trinity derived from the Trinity River, and Trudy derived in the sense that she would be true to her environment."
Trudy is featured in activity books, magnets, stickers and a website that explains the "secret world of storm drains." She's also the only dragonfly nymph mascot costume known to man, officials believe.
Employees don the outfit when they visit classrooms or eco-friendly events to spread the word about storm water maintenance.
"Whoever can fit into it, wears it," Harvey said.
Although the first Trinity Trudy – with her freckles, white shirt and blue fishing hat – was undeniably adorable, officials said they decided last year to change her from a slightly frumpy insect to a slightly muscular heroine who encourages children to recycle and to scold their parents for dumping motor oil in the driveway.
A local comic book company gave Trudy a complete overhaul, giving her large eyes like those of characters found in anime cartoons and a slimmer figure.
"We tried to make her look like what kids are watching on television now," said Ms. Day, who owns the Rocket Red advertising agency. They've given Trudy a new activity book and buttons and are designing a new costume.
They've also given her a big sister, Brook, an adult dragonfly who can help her baby bug sibling explain complex terms like "bioassessment" and "floatable debris."
Although Dallas is the only city in the area with a mascot for storm water management, other U.S. cities also use cartoon characters to teach kids about pollution.
Eugene, Ore., has Lily, a Pacific green tree frog that visits area classrooms to caution kids against storm water malfeasance. Then there's Sammy Salmon, the storm water "spokesfish" for Sacramento, Calif.
And Storm Drain Dan battles a weed killer nemesis in a coloring book created by the city of Phoenix's storm drain department.
"Storm Drain Dan is a concrete storm drain pipe, who magically came to life one day," according to the coloring book. "He wants to help everyone in Phoenix and the Valley understand that it is important to keep our storm drains and desert environment clean."
Fort Worth has Captain Crud. He battles the "Cruddies," which represent environmental and recycling hazards such as pesticides and plastic bottles.
Source: DMN
