Our Daughter wants to Save the Planet.

And she wants to encourage other kids to help her out!

Bonnie (6) has always shown a compassionate desire to help. Throughout her life, people have always commented on her caring and nurturing nature, and her natural ability to find solutions to problems that present themselves - both big and small.

I am reminded of a particular time when she attended Creche. I had come to pick her up after a class at Waikato University, and to my utmost amazement and unfaltering awe, I quietly watched as she (being only three years old at the time), gently calmed a peer who had scraped their knee, by teaching this child about mitosis. Mitosis! Sure, something in my study routine was certainly rubbing off. But the thing that made me stay frozen, watching carefully as a silent observer, was the way she approached this crying child, sat next to them, and listened as she tenderly helped them to settle.

This is merely one small example of how this special characteristic reflects an integral part of her makeup, and -to our enormous pride- this fierce determination of hers to help has kicked-off the beginning of an incredible conservation movement to save the Earth’s oceans. An idea she hopes to spread and continue learning and teaching about, with the encouragement and support of others. Especially kids. Welcome to Project Small Fry.

When she was 2 years old I had started at Waikato University (Hamilton, New Zealand) to pursue a Bachelor of Science (Biology and Animal Behaviour major). I figured my best bet at success would be to fully exploit the two-birds one-stone strategy - I would read my textbooks to her (in an attempt to settle her as she stared with wonder at the pictures displayed in them) and -as a bonus- I would make sure I was well and truly prepared for all my upcoming exams. When she began Creche and started to verbalise her curiosities (“why” being up there with her all-time favourite words) we began a bedtime ritual called “Ted Before Bed”. This practice involved spending quality time together as a family (before reading our bedtime books) to watch a TedEd episode through two times – the first to pause at each new idea to better explain the concepts in a tongue a child could better understand, and the second to run it through from beginning to end to absorb the ideas once more. A quiz appears at the end of each episode, and we recognised it immediately as a brilliant tool to induce more opportunities to ask questions and elaborate on the ideas being explored.

Bonnie is at primary school now, and she recently chose a TedEd episode called “The Life Cycle of a Plastic Bottle”. This got her brain working – BIG TIME. She started purposefully choosing library books based on ocean animals, the effects of plastic pollution, and recycling. We watched the now viral scene from David Attenborough’s Blue Planet 2 - For those unsure of what it is I speak of here, I encourage you to have a quick search on youtube under "Blue Planet 2 episode 4". We learnt that this years (2018) World Environment Day theme was “Beat Plastic Pollution”, with “World Oceans Day” following only a few days behind. These contributors began to inspire her to get proactive and try to achieve something large to raise awareness and fight for our oceans.

We are currently trying to organise a trip to the South Island in August 2018, to visit some major beaches, spending time doing our part to clear away the trash, to meet some of our marine friends to strengthen the interconnected relationship between life in the oceans and the importance of reducing plastic pollution, and to engage and encourage other kids and conservationists alike to join us on our journey!

Your support and encouragement to help Bonnie achieve this dream - and first big step to saving our planet- is absolutely essential. To make it easier for you (the public) to help us make this first experience possible for this little Planet Warrior, and to allow for future experiences to occur, Bonnie has come up with some incredible design concepts (the first being displayed as our brands fb profile image) for purchase. I drew this up for her on paper, and my partner transferred it to computer, added some colour and brought it to life.

We are in the middle of designing more environment-conscious family creations, but for the mean time you can order as many shirts (long/short sleeve/singlets) or tote bags with Bonnie’s first idea “Stop Plastic Pollution” imprinted upon them.

Currently shirts will be sold for $30.00 per item, and tote bags for $25.00.

So, in short, this is a real family effort. We are crossing our fingers and holding our breaths that by opening the door and raising awareness of one little girls journey to save the Earth’s oceans, and that through our successes, we will be privileged enough to expand our family to include all of you who want to make a REAL DIFFERENCE! We are talking about teaching our children of the impact plastic has on life on Earth, and empowering them to get involved and to achieve something meaningful towards improving the populations living within our marine ecosystems and adding quality of life to our friends in the oceans. All led by one kid, and only possible through the people who believe in her vision.

On the Project Small Fry Facebook page we greatly welcome any and all ideas, projects, photos, daily practices, experiences and stories that involve conservation and taking care our beautiful planet, and look forward to sharing our successes and learnings along the way!

Please feel free to post openly on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/ProjectSmallFry/, or alternatively to contact us through messenger or email missstormylove@hotmail.com to show interest in donating toward our “Clean New Zealand’s Beaches” adventure, purchasing apparel, or sharing any news or ideas that we can contribute to raising awareness!

We thank you for your investment toward helping our tamariki/children understand how to care for our planet, and greatly look forward to meeting you!

Warm regards,

Bonnie, Stormy and Jonah