On Saturday, April 14, Step-It-Up-2007 engaged thousands of people in all 50 states in local events at more than 1400 sites. They arrived on bikes, buses, ferries and in some places kayaks and horse drawn-carts to send a united message around a common call: 'Step it up, Congress: Cut carbon 80 percent by 2050.'

In Seattle, approximately 2,000 folks marched, chanted and cheered, as they wound their way in typical blustery Northwest rain, from Occidental Park in Pioneer Square and along the waterfront to Myrtle Edwards Park for a rally and solutions fair. Meg and I joined them, as did my husband Kirk and a handful of other Vashonites we spied along the way. Among them were Tom Dean, director of the Vashon-Maury Island Land Trust, and Amy Bogaard, known for her excellent farm stand and CSA at Hogsback Farm. She was unrecognizable as she swished her way through the crowd clad from head to toe in full salmon regalia.

Afterwards, as Meg and I rode the bus back to the ferry dock, we wondered what relevance this first national day of climate action held for our Island community. I decided to follow up with the fish, but Amy steered me to her husband, Joseph Bogaard, whom she credited with getting the family there in the first place. I asked Joseph, who happens to be outreach director for Save Our Wild Salmon, one of Step-It-Up's many sponsors, what actions we need to take to stem the tide of global warming.

'On Vashon and throughout the Northwest, salmon are totemic species,' he responded. 'Healthy salmon mean healthy orcas, ecosystems, diets and people. Global warming directly and, through impacts to salmon, indirectly, threatens everything. I think that Islanders have two fundamental responsibilities. First, we need to shelve any notion that we're already doing it all. We need to work harder, individually and together, to reduce our energy consumption. I'd like to see the community develop a way to track its collective energy usage and establish conservation benchmarks to strive for over time, then work to achieve them. Second, we need to support our fantastic elected leaders who represent Vashon, but also look beyond the Island to support other politicians and candidates - with our time and money - who will work to advance the new energy policies that our future depends on.'

When I asked what stood out about the march, he laughed, 'Well, it was really fun to watch Amy swim through the crowd on her roller blades.'

I was on a roll, so I dropped in at Tom Dean's office to get his impressions as well and to find out why he and his wife, Shelly, had taken their 4-year-old son, Logan to the march.

'I wanted that bigger momentum like at WTO,' he said. 'There needs to be a way to generate that much concern and excitement about global warming.

'Joseph and I were looking at the kids and talking about how this is our fault, but it's a problem they've inherited. We had a choice not to let things get this bad. We need to get the thick-headed politicians to change policy; we need to use more passive solar and to plant trees. Since the storm I've seen people cutting down healthy trees because they're next to the house. When summer comes they'll miss the shading and the energy value. They'll be burning gas mowing the lawn instead of growing trees.

'As for Logan, I wanted to expose him to a big crowd walking in the streets to call attention to global warming, so that I could look back on this with him 20 years from now, and say, 'You were right there when this was still a fledgling issue. You were part of it.'

I felt moved by the commitment of these two guys both in their work and with their families. We all have different ways of registering what we care about most. I participated in Step-It-Up for the solidarity and for the opportunity to bear witness. What happens next is the important thing. Get involved! Stay engaged! Put pressure on Congress until they get it right! Turn off the lights! Walk and bike more!

As Meg reminds me, we talk the talk but can we walk the walk' I think it's time for me to dust off my old pair of roller skates and take them for a spin. Maybe I'll run into Amy-the-Salmon on her way to the Saturday market.

- Janie Starr is a member of Sustainable Vashon's working council, which is sponsoring her and Meg Gluckman's work as emissaries for the Climate Project.