A group of five 13-year-old boys has successfully renamed one of St. Petersburg's historic waterways after discovering an obscure municipal loophole that allowed them to change Booker Creek to Booger Creek with 437 signatures and a $35 filing fee.

The boys, who attend a local middle school, said the effort began in September when eighth-grader Tyler Henderson noticed that Booker Creek was only one letter away from being significantly funnier.

"We were looking at Google Maps and I said, 'What if it was Booger Creek?'" Henderson recalled. "Everybody laughed for like 20 minutes. Then Mason said we should actually do it."

Using a free AI legal assistant, the boys discovered a provision in a 1923 municipal waterway ordinance permitting residents to petition for the renaming of waterways with fewer than three navigable miles, provided they obtained signatures from 437 registered Pinellas County voters.

The AI drafted a 19-page legal petition citing historical precedent, community engagement and the importance of preserving the city's "natural discharge corridors."

"We wanted to make sure everything was handled properly," said Mason Whitaker, 13, the group's unofficial legal counsel. "There were some sticky issues at first, but we picked through them."

The boys collected 612 signatures over two weekends, primarily outside Publix stores and along Central Avenue. They described the campaign as a grassroots effort to draw attention to the years of accumulated buildup and to restore the creek's natural flow, although several residents later acknowledged they had signed simply because the name made them laugh.

"People really got behind it once they realized we that werent just blow hards, but that we had passion," Whitaker said, adding "St Pete has so many nuggets like Booger Creek, you just have to dig for them and show them to the people."

City officials initially dismissed the petition as a prank. However, an internal legal review reportedly determined that the ordinance contained no minimum age requirement for petition organizers and no provision allowing the city to reject a proposed name simply because it was disgusting.

Municipal records supervisor Elaine Pritchard confirmed that the petition had been processed.

"The application was complete, the signatures were valid and the required fee was paid, albeit in loose change" Pritchard said. "We have referred the matter to our geographic nomenclature consultant."

The timing has created additional complications for organizers of the inaugural Booker Creek Arts Festival, scheduled for November 12 through 15 in the EDGE District.

The festival will showcase 127 works by Florida artists across nearly 40 local businesses, with up to $50,000 in juried awards. Organizers have spent months preparing promotional materials celebrating the creek's historic role in St. Petersburg's development.

The boys say the festival deadline was intentional.

"We knew we had to get the name changed before the art show because Kenny has been working on some really beautiful sculptures," Henderson explained. "He's been saving materials since August."

Kenny Fletcher, 13, is the group's artistic director and creator of a series of mixed-media works constructed primarily from dried nasal mucus.

His centerpiece, The Persistence of Snot, depicts a miniature St. Petersburg Pier emerging from a translucent green mound. A second work, The Green Bench, features a bench constructed entirely from compressed boogers collected during the first nine weeks of the school year.

"It's about the stuff people usually flick away," Fletcher explained. "I wanted to show that something gross can become something beautiful if you really dig deep enough."

Fletcher said his most ambitious installation, A River Runs Through You, will feature a six-foot representation of Booger Creek fashioned from tissue paper, epoxy resin and an estimated 11,000 individual nasal deposits.

The artist declined to identify his suppliers, citing confidentiality agreements and ongoing negotiations with two sixth-grade classrooms.

Festival organizers have reportedly informed the boys that their artwork does not qualify for the juried competition, which requires artists to be at least 18 years old.

The boys have responded by submitting a separate petition seeking recognition of mucus as a traditional Florida folk-art medium.

"We've done the research," Whitaker said. "There's a long history of people making things with stuff that comes out of their bodies. We're just trying to get our foot in the door."

Meanwhile, St. Petersburg's  Office of Geographic Identity has established a temporary working group to determine whether existing creek signage must be replaced, whether the new name affects stormwater permits and whether the city is obligated to notify the U.S. Geological Survey.

The boys have offered to cover the cost of replacement signs through merchandise sales, including Booger Creek T-shirts, bumper stickers and a limited-edition miniature slingshot dubbed the Snot Rocket.

Henderson said the group is already considering its next civic improvement project.

"We've been looking at Lake Maggotori, Smell Isle and John's Gass, all of which polled well at lunch."

City officials have requested that the boys refrain from submitting additional petitions until the current matter is resolved.

Fletcher, meanwhile, has confirmed that his festival installation is nearly complete, although the recent cold weather has slowed production.

"We're a little short on raw materials," he said. "But Mason's little brother has allergies, so we should be good."

‍