At the young ages of seven and eight years old, Fayette County High siblings Carter and Olivia Ries were passionate about saving endangered species and protecting the environment, so much so that in 2009, with the help of their parents, they started a nonprofit, international organization called One More Generation.
Since its inception, the organization has led numerous letter writing campaigns and raised funds to bring awareness and protection to threatened or endangered animals around the world including cheetahs and rhinos in South Africa, rattlesnakes and sea turtles in the United States, and orangutans in Indonesia. In February, the organization will launch an awareness campaign to protect pangolins, the most poached and trafficked mammal in the world.
World leaders and celebrities have recognized Carter and Olivia for their work. They were invited to the White House earlier this year where they delivered over 12,500 letters they had collected from their sea turtle letter writing campaign, and celebrity talk show host Steve Harvey helped them deliver over 10,000 letters from around the world regarding rhino poaching to the minister of environmental affairs in South Africa.
In addition to the animal conservation division of the organization, the brother and sister team added an environmental conservation division after delivering animal rescue supplies to the Gulf Coast during the BP oil spill. It was then they learned about the threats of plastic pollution to the environment and to animals. They have even written a plastic and recycling awareness curriculum, along with two teachers and a former high school principal, that is available nationwide and is being piloted in the United Kingdom, South Africa, and soon in Australia. The weeklong program has been written to match the latest national and state curriculum standards for science (K-6) and is being considered for adoption by the U.S. State Department of Education.
Their latest environmental campaign, called One Less Straw, is aimed at educating people on how the use of plastic straws is a threat to animals and the environment. Olivia Ries says straws are among the top 10 items found in clean up events around the world. After researching other plastic straw awareness campaigns, she and brother Carter decided the most effective approach would be to create a month-long online pledge campaign where persons agree to go without using plastic straws for 30 days.
“The goal is to make people think about their actions every day as opposed to getting them to click on a petition and forget about it the next day,” said Olivia.
Fayette County High School, with support from principal Dan Lane, kicked off the pledge signing campaign the first week of November with students pledging not use straws for 30 days, and encouraging their parents to take the pledge as well.
Straws are not distributed in the cafeteria at Fayette County High, but students do bring beverages with plastic straws to school. While it is impossible to know the impact Fayette County High alone will have on reducing plastic straw usage, Carter Ries points out that with the daily usage of plastic straws in America being over 500 million, which averages out to 1.6 straws for every man, woman and child, the potential impact could be huge.
“We know that not all students will take the pledge and that not all parents will either, but once you consider the fact that those who take the pledge are more likely to stick with saying no to plastic straws beyond the 30 days, the number of straws the campaign is keeping from being used is impressive. Now think about the impact on our community and on future generations if we got all of our schools to participate. Now as a community, we are truly making an impact,” said Carter.
The One Less Straw Campaign has over 130 partner organizations that are helping to spread the word about the initiative. Locally, the City of Atlanta’s Sustainability Department, the Georgia Aquarium, and the Georgia Restaurant Association is supporting the campaign, along with global partners such as the Captain Planet Foundation and the Ray C. Anderson Foundation.
Carter and Olivia hope to get 50,000 signed pledges in the first year of the campaign that will be rolled out in a five-year phase with the first year targeting schools and restaurants. In subsequent years, they plan to add the hospitality industry and other community sectors where plastic straw consumption is high.
Local restaurants are encouraged to join the campaign. Anyone interested in learning more can send an email requesting information to info@onemoregeneration.org.
