Grant and Colton Shepard were bothered by what they saw in the water while on a family canoe trip. "We were there to enjoy the beauty, but we saw a lot of litter, said Grant, 11. The brothers decided to take action when they got back to their home in

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Grant and Colton Shepard were bothered by what
they saw in the water while on a family canoe
trip. "We were there to enjoy the beauty, but we
saw a lot of litter, said Grant, 11. The
brothers decided to take action when they got
back to their home in Riverside, Illinois. They
contacted the Illinois Department of Natural
Resources and volunteered to monitor local rivers
and streams. They attended training workshops to
become familiar with the organisms found in local
waters. The boys then started taking weekly
samples from two rivers. They studied them to
make certain the underwater ecosystem was
balanced. Sometimes theyd find strange things.
"We once discovered a big picnic table that had
sunk underwater!" said Grant. It's not just
rivers that these kid environmentalists care
about. They have dedicated themselves to
keeping their environment totally balanced. "In
the future, we're going to need resources, and if
we don't preserve them now, they won't be there
for us," said Colton, 14. Every year, as part of
their campaign for a cleaner world, the brothers
go at least 100 days without using a car. Each
boy has 10,000 miles under his wheels more than
the distance around the world! Their mission to
cut down on the carbon-monoxide gas that cars
release into the air. The brothers have also
been active in helping restore Illinois' precious
prairies. For the past two years, they have spent
at least one Saturday a month clearing away
non-native plants from a 100-acre rare-oak
savanna. "The plants and bushes threaten our
heritage because they prevent the old oaks from
growing properly," said Grant. Time for Kids
named Grant and Colton Shepard Hometown Heroes
for their efforts in helping the environment.
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Melissa Poe was nine years old when she started a
campaign for a cleaner environment by writing a
letter to then President Bush. Her letter was
reproduced on over 250 donated billboards across
the country. The response to her request for
help was so large that Poe established Kids For A
Cleaner Environment (Kids F.A.C.E.) in 1989.
There are now 300,000 members of Kids FACE
worldwide, and it is the world's largest youth
environmental organization. Melissa also
petitioned the National Park Service to implement
a "Children's Forest" project in every national
park. In 1992, she was invited as one of only six
children in the world to speak at the Earth
Summit in Brazil as part of the Voices of the
Future Program. In 1993, she was given a Caring
Award for her efforts by the Caring Institute.
Since the organization started, Kids F.A.C.E.
members have distributed and planted over one
million trees! Ongoing tree-planting projects
include the creation of Kid's Yards - backyard
wildlife habitats and currently Kids F.A.C.E. is
involved in the exciting Earth Odyssey, which is
a great way for others to start helping take care
of the environment. "Starting the club turned
out to be a way to help people get involved with
the environment. Club members started doing
things like recycling, picking up litter and
planting trees as well as inviting other kids to
join their club. We try to tell kids that it's
not OK to be a slacker," she explains. "You need
to start being a responsible, environmentally
friendly person now !
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Janine Licare Andrews and Aislin Livingstone were
worried about the future of the rainforests. So
they decided to sell painted rocks at a roadside
table in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica to raise
money to help protect local rainforests and
endangered wildlife. They were just nine years
old at the time. In 1999, the girls opened a
store to sell their artwork as well as the work
of local artists and craftspeople. All of the
store's profits go toward preserving rainforest
land, rehabilitating baby animals, and educating
people around the world about the connection
between humans and nature. Ever since they were
little, the girls acknowledged the fact that the
rainforest is home to many kinds of animals as
well as other living organisms such as trees,
plants and insects. Janine feels that the
rainforest is an amazing place and we must
protect it. It is very important that we
preserve the environment because by saving it, we
make sure that our future is protected and
available for the next generations. If it
disappears, then so does our planet. With the
help of volunteers, friends, classmates and the
community the organization has come a long way.
I believe that kids can make a real difference,
says Janine. With their help, there's no limit
as to how far we can go! Join us and do your
part in saving the world!
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In 1998 when Ryan Hreljac was in the first grade,
he learned from his teacher that people were
dying around the world because they didn't have
clean water to drink. Ryan decided that he
would raise money to help provide clean water for
people to drink. He worked for four months doing
extra chores around his house to earn his first
seventy dollars. Ryan was just seven years old
when his first well was built in 1999 at the
Angolo Primary School in Uganda, Africa. The
well continues to serve thousands of people.
Ryans determination grew from the seventy
dollars he collected doing household chores to a
Foundation that today has raised millions of
dollars and remains committed to bringing clean
water and sanitation services to those affected
by the global water and sanitation crisis.??
Although Ryan started raising money for water
projects in 1998, the Foundation was not formed
until 2001. Since then, Ryans Well Foundation
has helped build over 600 water and sanitation
projects in sixteen countries, bringing safe
water and improved sanitation services to over
685,000 people. Dedicated to the Foundation and
its work, Ryan continues to speak passionately
about the need for clean water around the world
and has visited over two dozen countries in
spreading his message. He has presented to
hundreds of schools, churches and civic clubs,
and more than two dozen international conferences
and global events with a clear message that every
person deserves clean water, and that everyone
can help make a difference. Just think, all of
this happened because Ryan had a concern when he
was just six years old!
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When Brynn Schor was ten, she wanted to make
America beautiful. She started by making the
area right outside her portable classroom
prettier! Brynn was a fourth-grader at Beaver
Creek Elementary School in Johnston, Iowa at the
time. The school's main building was surrounded
by attractive trees and bushes. But Brynn's
portable classroom sat on mounds of dirt. "It
seemed so ugly," says Brynn. She decided to try
a little flower power. "As I walked to my
classroom one day, an idea began to sprout in my
mind," Brynn said. She thought a row of flowers
would look lovely, so she decided to plant bulbs.
First Brynn got permission from her teacher
and her principal. Then she wrote letters to two
local gardening stores asking them to donate
bulbs. The stores gave Brynn fifty bulbs forty
tulips, five daffodils, and five crocuses.
Brynn recruited her friends and classmates. "I
wanted my friends to have a chance to do
something to make their community more
beautiful," she said. It wasn't easy to plant
the bulbs because the soil was hard and muddy. It
took three messy hours to plant all the bulbs!
But it was worth it.
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