By Scot Quaranda

Campaign Director, Dogwood Alliance

A couple weeks ago, I ventured down to Charlotte, NC, to meet Cole Rasenberger, a happy, well-rounded eight year old with a serious passion for protecting forests.  I wanted to briefly share his story with you and invite you to join him in taking action to protect the wildlife and forests of our region.

Cole contacted me in March asking how he could help protect North Carolina’s coastal forests.  By the tone of his email I assumed he was in high school and so I sent him materials that I thought would be appropriate and talked with him about our fast food campaign.

A few short weeks later he informed me that he had received permission from his principal to get postcards signed by the kids at his school and developed an action plan that made him sound like a veteran organizer.  It was also at this time that I received a “secret” email from Cole’s mom (pictured here with part of the team) letting me know that he is eight years old and really excited about this project.  That blew me away!

By Earth Week, Cole had drawn four beautiful postcards, crafted a message to fast food corporate executives and recruited 24 friends to help him with the project.  Over a three day period, Cole and his team stormed the school, doing presentations in every class, and got over 2,000 postcards signed to the fast food companies.  The message was clear to the companies, “please be a leader for environmental change and protect our forests for my generation.”

Help Cole help protect our forests by taking action and asking fast food executives to use less packaging and more recycled paper in their packaging.

Every now and again something so inspiring comes along that you have to share it with the world and hope that it not only makes you smile but encourages you to do your part to help make this world a better place.  I hope you will join Dogwood Alliance in helping make Cole’s dreams for a better world for his and future generations come true!