On Sept. 12 I gave my first speech at Ignite Charity. I didn't know how nervous I would be. I was. I knew that I wanted to talk about saving sharks and saving the oceans. I had to do it. There were so many people and cameras. I had to hold a mic. Did I mention all the people? Almost 300 people were watching me. I thought I memorized my whole speech. I knew that I could do it in my sleep, but when I saw all those people, it was as if my brain froze a little. Everyone cheered me on when I forgot a line. They were so nice. They wanted to help and so I kept going. My 20 slides that changed every 15 seconds went so fast. I couldn't keep up, but it didn't matter. People listened anyway. I hope I got my message out.
Here is my message: Hi my name is Maddie. I am 9 years old and I am an activist and an Ocean Warrior. We all need to try every day to do what we can to save our oceans because with every breath we take, with every drop of water we drink, we are connected to the oceans. We are harming marine life with overfishing, shark finning and pollution. EVERYONE can make a difference if we just try. Please try. Help save our beautiful planet, our magical oceans and sharks that I love. I am Maddie, I am an activist and an Ocean Warrior. You can be one too. Please help AfriOceans and my hero Lesley Rochat do what they can to save our sharks. Help Oceana save our oceans and help National Geographic teach kids like me about our planet and all the animals in it.
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Tucker is a dog who helps save Orca whales. He sniffles their 'poo' and the marine biologists who work with Tucker can track the Orca's movements and learn all kinds of stuff about them.
Because of all the overfishing, it is getting harder for Orca whales to find enough fish to eat. They like to eat salmon. Orcas are stressed in looking for food. I guess that there are ways this can be found out by the stuff in their droppings. It can tell what they are eating and a lot more. Tucker doesn't like to get wet even though he spends lots of time on boats off the coast of Seattle. Here's a cool click link to the article and video about Tucker. What a dog! Dolphin Tale is one of my favourite movies. What happens in the movie is interesting and a bit scary too. Winter, a wild dolphin, gets her tail trapped in a crab trap. A man sees it and calls the Clearwater Aquarium. A boy named Sawyer sees the dolphin too and runs to her side and then cuts her free from the trap. She is really hurt. Winter gets moved to the aquarium where the doctor and his helpers try to save her life. This is where her story begins.
Winter's tail is really infected. If she is going to live, it has to come off. She has to try to swim without it. She gets help and there this is where the story has lots of hope and happiness too. This movie is a reminder to be kind to our oceans and to keep trying even if it seems impossible. When I watched this movie, it pushed me to try harder and never stop trying to save our oceans and the marine animals that live in it. If I had to rate this movie, I would give it five out of five stars. The Internet is so cool. I was able to email my hero, Lesley Rochat, Shark Warrior. She emailed me back and now I am even more excited about my dream to save our oceans and all the marine life.
Lesley has helped me realize that yes, I am an Ocean Warrior. You can be too. Here's some of her email to me. I hope it will inspire you. Dear Maddie Thank you so much for a lovely email, the kind words and support of the work I do. I am traveling at the moment, hence the delay in replying - I was in the Cocos Islands, an underwater treasure land, diving with all sorts of sharks and then I visited the Whale sharks of Cancun, Mexico, the beautiful gentle giants. I am on my way home now, back to South Africa and writing to you while in transit at the Atlanta airport. I receive a lot of emails about my work but yours is especially special to me, not only because you love sharks and the oceans like I do, but because it is knowing that young people like you are out there, people who will, and are making a very big difference. Our oceans need young people like you. I truly believe you hold immense power which we as adults do not, since after all it is us, our generation as well as the ones before us, that have messed up our beautiful planet, leaving it to the next generation to save. Your passion will inspire change, always remember that. Passion is contagious and people will stand up and take notice, and when the passionate people keep at it, eventually it leads to change. Just be patient, have faith, and when the going gets tough, which it often will in a world that generally lacks compassion for the beautiful animals we share the planet with, keep believing in your calling, you are brave and strong, a true Ocean Warrior, a fellow Shark Warrior. In South Africa I run a youth programme called the AfriOceans Warriors – take a look at it on the website of the organisation I founded, AfriOceans, the link is below. There is also a short video on my SharkAmbassador Youtube link. I took a look at your website and blog – well done! It is excellent and I am delighted to be included and to be one of the people that inspires you. And yes, it will be great to meet one day, it will be my pleasure. I will be returning to the States in November to dive with the sharks of the Bahamas again...perhaps on one of my trips we can connect, that would be nice. Wishing you lots of only the best young Shark Warrior :-) Today I got an email reply from Lesley Rochat. She is known as the Shark Warrior. She is so amazing. She is the one who makes me want to keep going with my ideas about saving sharks. I want to educate everyone about the harm we are doing to sharks. Shark fining is killing so many sharks. Lesley has made a lot of films and videos about sharks.
To me, Lesley is one of the coolest people on this planet. She is my inspiration and when I hear from her, I know that I am an Ocean Warrior and a Shark Warrior too! I can't wait to meet her in person. At Cool Clicks, I like to share amazing videos. I hope you'll learn a lot about why we need to protect sharks. They help keep the balance of our ecosystem. AfriOceans: http://www.aoca.org.za | Lesley: http://www.lesleyrochat.com ‘Sharks in Deep Trouble’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo8K1-BVtNw&feature=channel ‘Rethink the shark’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ2DyVqZYi4&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL And ‘Rethink the Predator’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wCXWjgVrPs&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL With the supervision of my parents, I get to use a MacBook to do research on the Web about my passion for saving the oceans. I've learned about some amazing people. There are a few I really want to tell you about. One amazing lady who is my inspiration is Lesley Rochat. She loves sharks and the oceans so much. She is a Shark Warrior and Marine Conservationist. How kewl is that? Seriously. I want to be a Marine Zoologist and Conservationist when I grow up.
On my Home page, I have some Cool Clicks about "Rethinking the Shark". I'm so stoked that I found these videos. Lesley is an incredible photographer too. She dives and takes the best photos. Then there is Surfer Kelly Slater. His home is the ocean. He is serious about saving it. I'm glad that there are awesome people in the world who want to do what I do --- save our oceans! Cool Click on Kelly's video. My mom loves to surf and I get to watch her. She thinks Kelly rocks too. Even movie stars like Ted Danson are into saving the oceans and being an ocean hero. Cool Click here to see them talk about taking the Oceana pledge. Ted narrates this great video that talks about what's happening to our oceans because of pollution and overfishing. Oceana is a great organization. To learn more, Cool Click here. I still support The National Geographic Society, but Oceana is the perfect organization for me as it is all about helping saving the oceans! I'm inspired by all these great people and when I feel sad about the harm done to our oceans and marine life, I watch my Cool Click videos and know that I'm not alone. I know there are others like me who want to make a difference. On October, I'm flying to New York City with my family. When we are there, we are going to do a family 5km run on Coney Island's boardwalk to raise money as part of Team "Save Our Oceans". This is my family's team name. We are running in the NY Aquarium fun run to help raise money for the walruses and other ocean animals. It is part of the Wildlife Conservation Society and it is called Run for the Wild. I am so excited about this run. It will be my first 5 km race. I think I might dress up. I've seen lots of photos of people in costumes and dressed as Ninja Turtles or other other cool ocean animals. I hope to raise $125.00 and my family hopes we will raise $500.00 Every little bit helps. We can all make a difference if we believe we can! Did you know: 1. There are only 20 baby walruses born in aquariums in the U.S.A. 2. There have only been 15 baby walrus births in the past 31 years. 3. When they are born they weigh around 120 pounds 4. The water they swim in needs to be very cold..around 44 degrees F as they are arctic animals. 5. They love snow and like to make walrus snow angels Check out this cool click for walruses in the New York Aquarium. With my mom just back from San Francisco, which is by the Pacific Ocean, I'm really ready to start working on my presentation for Ignite Charity. This is a super kewl new event. It is where people get to talk for five minutes about a charity they are passionate about. My passion is the ocean and saving all the amazing animals that live in it!
My mom does lots of presentations, so she is going to help me get ready for mine. I make Keynote presentations all the time as something for my Save the Shark Club and fundraising for Oceana. This presentation will be different. I have to talk in front of lots of people and my slides will change every 20 seconds. My mom says she will help me with a 'Plan B', but I don't need it. I love the oceans so much and want to share my message with the world. Thank you for this chance, Ignite Charity. You rock!!! I created this site with the help of my mom who inspired me because she is a blogger. I also wanted to blog because one day in Science, my teacher, Mrs. Bradley, told us about how little fresh water is left on our planet. The amount has dropped a lot and it makes me really sad. So sad that I cry whenever I think about it. So, I want to tell you how to save water, how to save our oceans and the animals that live in it. Our planet is precious. Help me save it.
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Maddie Cranston,
--Ocean Warrior "We never know the worth of water till the well is dry." ~Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732 Archives
April 2018
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