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Down and Dirty for a Good Cause

Essex, Vermont -- August 9, 2009

It will take a lot of soap and some long showers to clean up from a daylong fundraiser. The Epilepsy Foundation of Vermont held its twentieth annual Mud Volleyball Tournament.
     "It takes a couple weeks to get all the grime off," said David Speed of Barre, who was playing with a team from Cabot Creamery. "You find things in places you didn't know you had."
     The Cabot team was one of about seventeen groups of coworkers or friends raising money. Competing in the filthy fun gave people a chance to get in touch with their inner swine.
     "They're getting back to their childhood, and people like to play in mud," said Deb Fennell, who sits on the foundation's board. She said she expects the tournament will bring in more than $5000 to pay for support services for people with epilepsy, training for school nurses, and development of the group's website.
     "It's an opportunity for people to go on and find the most current information, talk with other people who have been through some of those things," Fennell said. "I have a daughter with epilepsy, which is how I got involved with the organization, and the support programs were really helpful for me."
     The goal of most of the players, though, was good, unclean fun.
     "Who doesn't love playing around the mud getting dirty?" Speed said. "Plus, you never know what your going to find. I guess this year there's a lot of frogs, last year there was a snapping turtle. You never what you're going to find in the mud pit, but like I said, everybody has a great time with it, it's a lot of fun."

Kate Duffy -- WCAX News