March Happenings

March has been quite an eventful month! I had the pleasure to share my word with new people and participate in another cleanup! Keep reading for details!

YOCS Panel Discussion

Last year, I went to the Georgia Youth Ocean Conservation Summit (YOCS) in Savannah. I learned new ways to reach out to different organizations, and from that experience, I was able to apply and receive a mini-grant. This year, the roles were reversed. I was invited to speak on a panel with other youth environmental leaders to share my experiences and inspire other kids. I presented virtually about my Trash for Turtles project to (hopefully) spark new ideas. The kids had many great questions involving my work that I answered the best I could. I hope these answers will lead them to new questions and they will use the different experiences over my 8-year project as inspiration to start their own!

Blackshear Elementary Presentation

I was also invited to speak to 5th grade students at Blackshear Elementary School this month. I gave some background about my Trash for Turtles project, and then I read a book to them. One of last month’s Read-a-thon books, Follow the Moon Home by Philippe Cousteau was fully sponsored by their class using a coin drive. How cool is that?! As a special thank you to their class, I invited Mrs. Kris Carroll with the Caretta Research Project on Wassaw National Wildlife Refugee to speak to them. She talked about all their great sea turtle conservation efforts, which was very interesting! I also donated a copy of this book to their school library.

Marsh Madness Cleanup

Annually, Keep Golden Isles Beautiful puts on a Marsh Madness Cleanups event during the month of March. During these cleanups, people join together to lead and clean up our marshes. I participated in one of these along the Back River in Brunswick. My family along with students from Glynn Academy National Honors Society cleaned up a huge pile of trash. This includes items such as truck tires, takeout containers, and strangely lots of shoes. Someone must have gotten their feet stuck in the mud!

I’d like to give a special shout out to: The Savannah YOCS Planning Committee, 5th grade teacher Mrs. Wicker, Mrs. Kris with the Caretta Research Project, and Mrs. Lea with Keep Golden Isles Beautiful for the opportunity to share my message and make a difference in my community this month!