Oliver hires his first employee!

Oliver made a very important business decision today.  He hired his very first employee and the interview process was super cute.  I am almost positive Liam agreed to work for just 3 sand dollars a week but Liam must bring extra fruit snacks to the cleanups.  It just doesn’t get cuter than that.  How children can come up with these types of things just amazes me.  We all laughed when we heard the deal go down, but the boys insisted we stop playing around and get to work.  Liam is an energetic little fellow and a trustworthy little sidekick, and actually a very hard worker.  Once Oliver got the basic training down as to how to properly use the litter grabbers and how to never touch the trash with your bare hands, the boys set off on a mission to clean.  And clean they did!  

It is absolutely amazing how little’s can spot trash that a grownup will miss.  I know they are great Easter egg hunters, but these two could find a needle in a haystack as long as the needle was litter.  For instance, three adults on the beach walked past a broken clear cigarette lighter, and both the boys went frantic when they stumbled upon it.  “How could you miss this, are you blind, do you know how a pelican would feel if it ate this lighter?”  Oliver even offered to go get his dad’s reading glasses from the car.  Liam insisted on a bonus, being it was his first day on the job, so we took a snack break and hydrated!  The boys were so proud and to be honest, it really warmed my heart as well.

At the end of the cleanup adventure, we took a little time to discuss how much trash we had found.  Oliver was absolutely amazed because we cleaned this beach about a month ago.  It was surprising to see just how much new trash had accumulated, but how much we had missed from the first cleaning.  Liam thought we did a good job but insisted next time we should bring some chocolate to help motivate them to work a little harder.

It is eye-opening to discover that our planet has a such a wide scale plastic and litter problem.  It is everywhere.  We understand that our efforts are not the solution, but we hope we can make a small impact and inspire others to do the same!  It is the weekend, it is nice outside, will you ask the family to go for a nature walk with you?  Bring a trash bag along, the world will thank you for it!  It is all about leaving the place a little better than you found it so the next generation will have the opportunity to enjoy it as much as we do...