When I was growing up in Pacific Grove, California, the wonders of the outdoors – and my parents’ work with the local Sierra Club chapter – helped shape my love of nature.
My friends and I played among towering redwood trees that seemed to reach all the way to heaven. We surfed the waves and ran along the beach. Every year, monarch butterflies arrived as part of their annual journey, and we saw them, thousands of them, in waves of orange and spotted white. There were so many that when they landed together on trees, the branches would bend and bounce. I was awestruck by how these tiny creatures, just a fraction of the weight of a feather, could completely transform the landscape.
There are far fewer of these butterflies now. And far fewer opportunities for kids to see them as I did. Like too many living things, these marvels of the world are at risk of disappearing. They need protection so they can thrive once again.
That’s where you come in. No matter how old you are, this planet and its future are in your hands. Inside every one of us, there is an environmentalist who can transform their love for nature into the dedication to protect it. Every time you do something, anything, to help protect a wild place or an endangered animal, you help make sure that other kids get a chance to enjoy it too – whether it’s the forested landscape of the Northern California coast, the mountains of Appalachia, or the monarch butterflies that paint wild places with color.
You deserve clean water to swim in, pristine forests that touch your soul, and a world full of critters of all kinds. Protecting the planet is its own kind of adventure – one that begins with a single moment of awe and wonder.
