By Kylie Sacksick (8 years old)
I want to be an eco kid because I love nature and would like to help protect the rainforest. When I visit the rainforest, the shade from the canopy of trees refreshes me, the smell of green trees relaxes me and the songs of the birds inspire me. I hope and pray that I might find and follow a jaguar’s paw prints on a trail or I may look up high above and see an owl staring back at me. I am lucky to have seen soldier ants carrying leaves to build their homes, pigs grunting by and howler monkeys hanging on tree branches, sounding like thunder. It’s amazing how the rainforest makes such a positive impact on little me.
Now to think humans are destroying our animals’ homes by cutting down trees upset me. Not only are trees the homes to some animals but they also provide the food that they eat. Trees are also important because they make oxygen and hold together the soil in the forest floor together. Flowering plants provide the perfumes of the forest and attract birds to pollinate. Some plants are used for medicines to heal the sick. So my wish is for people to stop chopping down our trees and see how priceless they are to animals and all human beings.
At my school, they teach us to reuse, recycle, reduce and compost to conserve the environment. At home I collect all my moms plastic bottles, aluminum cans and styrofoam packaging and bring them to our school for the recycling program. I help to water my mom’s plants at home and pick up waste in the yard and put them in the garbage bin. I use a plastic bottle that I refill with water everyday for school. But imagine if I can live, learn and practice all this with friends and animals in the rainforest, oh how I would count my blessings and cherish every moment to be an eco kid of the rainforest.