BERMUDA STUDENT STEWARDSHIP WINNERS
via Royal Gazette
Pupils from Mount Saint Agnes Academy proved they care about the marine environment — and were rewarded with a chance to swim with dolphins.
Youngsters from the school won first place in a conservation contest organised by Dockyard’s Dolphin Quest after they submitted a video about plastic pollution in the seas.
Dolphin Quest invited the fifth grade pupils to enjoy the sea creatures up close in the recently expanded Ocean Sanctuary as a reward.
Krysta Walker, manager of marine animals at Dolphin Quest, said: “Dolphin Quest is very much involved with education as well as conservation.
“We thought it would be a great opportunity for the schools to get involved and really get inspired to make a difference in their own lives.
“We wanted to not only do our education programmes here, but also see what they could do in the classroom.”
Teacher Anna Faria-Machado’s class, with the help of 12th grade video editor Noah Brady-Soares, made the video.
Kaylee Almeida, 11, said: “We decided to do this because all the plastic is killing animals and we really like animals because they’re beautiful. And they were here before us.”
Chloe Bothelo, 11, said: “We wanted to give a powerful message because we’re learning about how much plastic we’re putting in our oceans and why we should use things that aren’t plastic.”
Video editor Noah, 18, “loved every minute” of working with the pupils.
He said: “To see how passionate these guys were about it was really inspiring to me.”
Ms Walker said: “I hope that it gets schools more involved in their community and gets them to really help out their local environment.
“We hope that the younger generation understands the importance of the environment, realise the impact they have.”
She added: “I think it’s important for youth to get an idea of conservation and really understand it.”
Ms Faria-Machado said: “They really managed to carry out the vision we had.
“We all can make a little bit of difference in our corner of the world.”