![Declan McAdams sits cross-legged with chin on one hand.](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/06e7c92/2147483647/strip/true/crop/5472x3647+0+0/resize/2000x1333!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F70%2F70%2Fe8f0c62148018bb26d323d3003e4%2F1446735-me-enviro-middle-school-students-6.jpg)
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When I was a kid, I always loved ocean animals. I always loved the sea. I loved the fish. And I would watch “Octonauts.” I loved all that stuff.
One day a Heal the Bay person came and told us about how the plastic is affecting the seas. And I was just upset. I didn’t want the animals to die. I didn’t want the sea to become polluted.
I went home and I told my mom about it, and she said we needed to do something. So, when I was in kindergarten, we started a thing called the Five for Five Club, where five days a week, for five minutes a day, you would pick up trash. And at the end of the day you get a prize because, of course, we had to bribe kids to pick up trash.
Eventually, by the end of the year, we had 100 man-hours, and 100 kids participated.
Everybody is saying if one person does a big thing, it’s not going to change anything. But I think if a bunch of people just do little things to help, try to do it every day, or at least maybe once a week, then we could make some big changes.
Declan McAdams is an eighth-grader who cares about the ocean and believes we can all make a difference. He also believes there was plenty of room for Jack on that door, Rose, and that you didn’t need to push him off.