BRIER ISLAND, N.S. – Rhynda, Ian and Brier Tudor are my wonderful children and I – their mom, Amy Tudor – am having a proud mom moment.
My husband Jess Tudor and I are beachcombers and our children have grown up on the shore alongside us. We love the coastlines and clean when we can.
One day my husband had a thought about marine creatures swimming in plastic and pondered: Would the bottles on the beaches of Brier Island fill a pool?
The challenge started, and Jess and the kids hiked kilometres of coastline cleaning and collecting.
It took many hours but when you are a beachcomber getting out there, getting exercise, finding treasures and hunting for garbage can be fun.
After the first week of collection the pool was filling fast with bottles totalling about 1,500 and a disturbing amount of helium mylar balloons over 60.
Jess posted a photo of Brier and Ian to Facebook and it quickly took off getting over 1,200 shares, over 120,000 views and 1,000's of positive comments in just a few days. The boys even earned a spot on CBC TV and radio.
THE POSTING THAT WAS PUT ON FACEBOOK:
The children took part in the annual Pond Cove Beach Sweep here on Brier Island on Saturday, June 8 and collected many more bags for the pool. The kids are surprised and amazed at the positive response to there has been to their project.
They have done a such a great job so far that it is hard to find "new garbage" at the moment, so they are taking a few days off the project and waiting for a few tides to wash in new bottles and plastic waste to collect. They will also expand the pickup to the coves of our neighboring Island of Freeport.
Once the pool is full our family has been asked by Greenpeace to do a brand audit to see what products are the greatest polluters. The task of sorting and counting and bagging the bottles will give the kids a chance to do some practical math and learning skills.
Thank you to all the people who have shared the story and for the positive comments and kind words about their little project that has made a big impact.
(Amy Tudor is a freelance writer from Brier Island who contributes to the Tri-County Vanguard.)
