Mark your calendars: it’s another opportunity to Dress for Mess, when International Mud Day is observed in style at Middletown Library this Monday.
It started in Australia, just a few years ago — when school-age kids from the Land Down Under collected a mass donation of new clothes, soap and towels to Nepalese orphans. As the story goes, the children of both countries marked their connection with “a Dress for Mess celebration, enjoying art, science, and games involving mud, sand, and more.”
Fast forward to 2014, and International Mud Day is what we in the USA call A Thing — a “celebration of the joys of childhood, and a recognizing that children around the world have many of the same needs.” It’s a celebration that comes to the greater Green for the first time, when Middletown Township Public Library invites kids of all ages to Dress for Mess on the officially designated date of “Mudday,” June 30.
Going on between 10 am and 12 pm, the MTPL mucky-muck promises “soil, water, play dough, and more available for kids (and brave grown-ups) to play with.” The library will also be partnering with the Keansburg-based nonprofit Project PAUL to collect soap, toothpaste, and other toiletries for distribution to local families and individuals in need — so come dressed in your Mudday best; bring clean gifts for our needy neighbors, and maybe a towel or two for the car seats.
