When I was a kid, I always loved sea animals. I have always loved the sea. I loved the fish. And I would see “Octonauts.” I loved all of that.
One day a Heal the Bay person came and talked about how plastic affects the oceans. And I was just upset. I didn’t want the animals to die. I didn’t want the sea to be polluted.
I went home and told my mom and she said we needed to do something. So when I was in kindergarten, we started a thing called the Five for Five club, where five days a week, five minutes a day, you would pick up trash. And at the end of the day you get a prize because of course we had to bribe kids to pick up trash.
Eventually, by the end of the year, we had 100 man hours and 100 children participating.
Everyone says that if one person does a big thing, it won’t change anything. But I think if a bunch of people just do small things to help, try to do it every day, or at least maybe once a week, we can make some big changes.
Declan McAdams is an eighth grader who cares about the ocean and believes we can all make a difference. He also thinks there was plenty of room for Jack on that door, Rose, and you didn’t have to push him off.