Barcelona Boyd standing at the Sacramento Capital Building after collecting Leatherback bill petition signatures and hand delivering them to Senator Steinberg. Photo Credit: Brandy Boyd.

Barcelona Boyd (11), a 6th grader at California Montessori Project School last year was given a homework assignment to pick a cause, make a plan of action and execute it. After a visit to Sealife Park in Hawaii, she chose to "save the sea turtles".

 Barcelona researched sea turtles, how they live, and what threatens them and found a lot of great information from our Sea Turtle Restoration Project website, including our efforts to make the Pacific Leatherback sea turtle the official California State Marine Reptile (AB 1776 Fong).

In her plan of action she decided to support the legislation by collecting signatures and hand delivering copies of them to Senator Pro Temp Steinberg's office at the state capital in Sacramento. She also collected bottles and cans and donations at her school and by mail, with the goal of adopting one sea turtle nest. During the summer, she continued her activism by giving a presentation at the Sacramento Turtle and Tortoise Club meeting about her project. With her activism and determination, Barcelona raised enough money to adopt not just one but SIX sea turtle nests, and encouraged the resulting pass of AB1776 Fong by Governor Brown this October. Click here to learn about our Adopt-A-Nest Program.

Barcelona is just one example showing that no matter what age or education you have, every individual can help make a difference. Congratulations Barcelona, and keep up the great work!

 To see a copy of Barcelona's presentation please click the link below: