Two Generations – One
Common Goal
Written by SurfWriter
Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel
Different generations often don't feel that they have much in common. But, when it comes to trash on the beach, one 70-year-old and two teens – 8,000 miles apart – agreed it was time to do something about it.
Pat Smith, a grandmother from Cornwall, England, became a woman on a mission – to clean 52 beaches in Cornwall and Devon. After seeing so much trash on the beach, in 2018 she made a New Year's resolution to clean one beach every week for 52 weeks.
Armed with bags, rubber gloves and a litter
pick, she worked her way along the coast gathering trash at beach spots from
Coverack, Cornwall, to Blackpool Sands, Devon.
After completing her task, Smith didn’t want
to stop. Saying, "The beaches need me," she founded an environmental
group Final Straw Cornwall to get people involved and now they are cleaning
even more beaches.
Some 8,000 miles away, in Bali, Melati and Isabel
Wijsen are equally focused on combating beach and ocean pollution. In
2013, when they were 12 and 10, the two sisters began lobbying the government
to ban plastic bags on the island.
In 2019 they succeeded in getting single-use
plastic bags, plastic straws and Styrofoam containers banned in Bali. They also
started the non-profit environmental organization Bye Bye Plastic Bags, which
is active in 30 countries.
And to get more young people on board, Melati
launched Youthtopia to come up with local solutions to fight
pollution.
With environmental advocates like these, who
knows what Smith's next New Year's resolution or the Wijsens' projects will do
for the planet...and to inspire generations of all ages. What’s your
resolution?
Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel hold the exclusive rights to
this copyrighted material. Publications wishing to reprint it may contact them
at surfwriter.girls@gmail.com Individuals and non-profit groups are welcome to
post it on social media sites as long as credit is given.
