FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - A South Florida middle school is on a mission to help keep our beaches clean as part of a new program that raises awareness on environmental concerns.
“You guys can make change through your projects,” a teacher tells her students.
Students at New River Middle School in Fort Lauderdale are having a beach day, but they’ll be having a different kind of fun in the sun.
On Saturday, the kids will pick up trash at Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park in Hollywood.
“Whatever we pick up that we think we may like,” sixth-grader Christina Fitzgerald said, “we’re going to look at and see what we can create to make something better.”
By something better, she means the trash collected will be turned into marine art.
“Like animals, living organisms at the ocean,” Fitzgerald added.
The clean-up is part of the school’s new program, “Mission Possible: Marine Plastics.”
The goal is not only to teach kids about marine science and the importance of keeping our planet clean but to address the concerns of plastic pollution in our oceans.
“Right now our oceans are in a very bad state,” Conner Simmons said, “and we need to try to help them as much as we can before it’s too late.”
The clean-up is just the first step for these kids to bring one of the most pressing environmental issues to light, and also…
“To remind people that we need to get all the plastic out of our oceans because it’s dangerous for the animals and us,” Troy Blair said.
Some students already have a few ideas up their sleeves.
“You can walk more. If you’re going to somewhere close by, you don’t need to drive or bike,” Simmons said. “We can try to use less plastic. Really easy stuff, like recycling.”
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.