I am so excited to say I was awarded a grant from Tennessee American Water. This funding will further my monofilament recycling project. I am hoping to expand this project into more state parks and hopefully national parks!
If you know of a spot with a lot of fishing and discarded fishing line, let me know me I will try to add a monofilament bin and address this problem.
Last week, I was invited to the Tennessee Environmental Network Show of the South by Commissioner Salyers with TDEC (Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation).
This conference was attended by people in environmental and sustainability roles in large businesses, NGO’s, and government. Meeting and learning from these people was such an inspiring and uplifting because these are the people making real change in our state and region.
I was able to speak about recycling and NGO’s and how everyone can make a difference. We cannot rely on government entities to be the ones who care about our environment. It’s everyone’s job, including yours. What we do in a daily basis is what matters.
I met with not only local leaders but national leaders. People with the EPA know my name and my story. How amazing is that?!
If you’ve been following along with me for a while, you know I’ve been partnering with Tennessee State parks. Recently, I went to Tim’s Ford, Edgar Evans & Rock island state park and now officially have 40 monofilament receptacles out! I am so excited this program is really taking off and spreading across our state. Our watersheds will be a little safer from excess fishing line and now it can properly be taken care of and recycled.
Rally day for homeschoolers was in Nashville last week. This is an amazing way for young people to see how our government works first hand and I had the best day!
Not only did I see how our legislative processes work but I was able to meet with so many of my states influential leaders. My State Representative, Greg Vital of district 29 took his whole day to show me around and introduce me to some of the wonderful people leading Tennessee.
I learned SO MUCH, not only about government but our state in general. A special thank you to Secretary of State, Speaker of the House, State Comptroller and TDEC (Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation) for taking time out of their busy day to have just another Tennessee kid share my love for our state!
Recently, I’ve been contacting Tennessee State Parks and have now partnered with 4 to place monofilament recycling bins. These 14 bins placed between Booker. T Washington, Fall Creek Falls, Harrison Bay, & South Cumberland State park will collect fishing line to reduce this waste in our rivers and landfills. So happy to be able to work on this project which is funded by a grant from Youth Serving America & Hillshire Farms. How special, all of these were placed on World Water Day!
GLOBAL RECYCLING DAY
This is my simple recycling concept in under 10 seconds!
You can change the world your own way. This is one way I feel liken making a difference and I have some super exciting news coming in a few weeks! So many more of these monofilament receptacles are going out with the help of individuals, grants and money I’ve made from recycling.
The news is out and I am happy to announce I have been nominated and named in the top 5 for Time Magazine & Nickelodeon’s Kid of the Year! This is such a huge honor and I want to thank everyone who has taken time to help me along the way. I wouldn’t be here without my amazing family and friends who have always let me explore my passion and helped me in so many ways.
This won’t change my work or my motivation, actually, it will make me push even harder knowing people see what I’m doing and that I can make a difference.
A few weeks ago, after almost a year of work on aluminum can recycling , I hit the 1 TON mark! I keep track of how many pounds each time I take them to be recycled and it took 10 months to recycle 1 ton of aluminum.
The cans I pick up are from Play.Wash.Pint. A local dog play park where people meet, gather, hang out and their dogs can play in a safe space. This Business hated to see all of this potential just to the trash so I partnered with them and pick up all their aluminum and some plastic for recycling. The money I make from these cans goes to make my monofilament bins that are placed along the Tennessee River. There are now 17 out and I couldn’t have done it without this partnership. If you have an idea, and don’t know where to start or how to find it, look in the trash, who knows, you may find an idea? And you can help the planet too!
This morning I woke up to the news Winter the dolphin that has been at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium has died. This hurt my heart so much. I had the great pleasure to see Winter more than once and her story really touched me.
She was injured by a crab trap that was left behind and she was entangled causing irreversible damage to her tail which ended up having to be amputated. She was found and cared for by the amazing team at Clearwater Marine Hospital.
Their motto is rescue, rehab and release but a dolphin missing her entire tail flukes, is obviously unreleasable so that’s where she stayed for 16 years. So many people heard her story and connected with her on such a deep level. She touched so many human lives than and truly changed hearts towards ocean animals.
Winter was harmed by humans and was forced to be removed from her home but on the other hand, humans saved her and took amazing care of her so we learned humans can make things better and do our part to care for our wildlife. We can do better. We can come together and make an impact for good. Let’s do something today for Winter!
If there’s something I love, it’s the Tennessee River so today, I am celebrating World Rivers Day.
The Tennessee River and it’s tributaries supply drinking water to about 5.1 million people. It’s also the nation’s fifth-largest river system and one of the most biodiverse rivers in North America. With that said, it’s also the tested higher for microplastics than any other river in the world to date. Why?! Landfill waste! We have got to do better with what we dispose of and where it goes. Our health and well being literally depend on it.
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The Conservation Kid 