Dive Into Your Imagination

Lilly Tougas is an 8 year old on a mission to save the planet!  At such a young age she has already done more to protect the planet than most people accomplish in their whole lives, including traveling all the way to China to represent the U.S. in the “Green Olympics” in 2008!  This is one Cool Kid who is sure to inspire us all!

What inspired you to make protecting the planet such a big part of your life at such a young age?
I have had a passion for planet conservation since I was three years old.  I am always making sure to turn lights off, to save water, and always to recycle.  I even used to have a "message of the week" for the answering machine that would say something like, "we're not home, leave a message and don't forget to recycle!"

Learning that the planet was precious and we must take care of her means a lot to me. I got paint with the artist Wyland for ocean conservation, and when he gave me a medal to be a "Youth Ambassador of the Planet" I decided that it was my job to take action!

Wow, Youth Ambassador of the Planet is a very special award to get!  Hands Across the Ocean was a very special event where you and 3 other children from the U.S. got to travel to Beijing and paint with other kids from all over the world in order to promote a healthy planet.  What was this experience like??
It was amazing and I loved everyone that I met and saw. They were all very inspiring, and I loved joining hands with other countries for ocean conservation. 

Tell us about your website, GoGab.org.  What is it all about??
We set up the web sight at first because everyone wanted to know more about me what we were doing for the environment.  I wanted it to be called GoGab to mean Go Green And Blue, and also to mean Go Gab about issues. The website shows the type of things that I like to do for the planet and the upcoming events that I will be involved in so that people can join. 

Your website talks about lots of things that you are involved in to help the environment.  What kind of projects have you done it the past?
My first idea was to have a lemonade stand outside of local grocery stores and buy reusable grocery bags to give away to shoppers not using them.   Then I would also explain to them why it is important to switch to them instead of plastic.
I noticed how plastic bags would fly around town, and I felt very sorry when I noticed one was right next to a cow in a pasture.  Then we went around town and took pictures of the situations in which it was not possible for someone to clean up, such as in cow pastures, high in trees, and stuck in gutters.  I made a picture grid of them and wrote, “San Francisco banned the use of plastic bags...Bet they don't have this problem”, and I mailed them out to local officials.  I even got a response from a Senator!  I also just designed my own reusable bags so that I can hand them out at the local farmers market.

That’s a wonderful way to spread the work about plastic!  What are some of your other more recent ideas and projects?  How do you hope these projects will help the environment?
I like to participate in lots of beach cleanups, in fact we even developed our own clean up with the local Mayor and call it “The Mayor's Beach Cleanup” and do it once a month.

We also do Cupcakes For the Planet to raise money to get Wyland’s Mobile Learning Center to our town, and art campaigns to involve more kids.  I even brought recycling bins to school last year when I noticed that we didn't have them. I hope that all of this makes others want to do the same and spread the efforts to save the planet out.

Tell us about the poetry and artwork you make about the environment. 
Sometimes I just think of things and write it down or put some art an a piece of paper, I think that most of the art that I see children do are inspired by nature, when they draw animals, and sea creatures, or a sunset. It's all things that we are trying to protect.

You really have made ocean conservation a huge part of your life!  Why do you feel it’s important to protect the planet and our oceans?  What do you think are the most important things people can to do in order to do this?
I learn all the time through books, T.V., and people how super important the ocean is for our life. I think people need to stop using plastic bags, help keep the earth clean, conserve water, educate others and set good examples. I hope that the future has more laws passed to help protect the Earth, so that those who don't really care have to do better so that the planet can be healthier.

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed