Amazing how something as banal as a broken-down school dishwasher can lead to a meeting with a global legend.
The Beye Elementary School Green Team was concerned about the amount of single-use plastic utensils and trays entering the waste stream from its lunch room, so it decided to make a documentary film to demonstrate the scope of the problem. The key message was how important it was for the district to purchase a new dishwasher to replace the one that had broken down two years previous.
The documentary, titled “The Dishwasher Quest,” ended up winning a $500 Environmental Activism Award in the One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest, which is sponsored by the Jane Goodall Institute. But that was just the beginning.
Dr. Goodall, world-famous conservationist and humanitarian perhaps best known for her work with chimpanzees, passed away Oct. 1, just weeks after she met with members of the Green Team at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.
Goodall had a profound impact on Beye School fourth-grader Aiden Merkey. What was she like during their Sept. 13 meeting?
“Very gentle, kind, generous and loving,” Merkey said. “It was very cool, seeing a really famous person in real life instead of doing a call. I talked to her and it was awesome because she’s been doing so many great things for a long time.”
His classmate and fellow Green Team member, Henry Pietrus, was in full agreement.
“At the assembly, she was making funny jokes … ‘Whoo-hoo-hoo,’” Pietrus recalled. “It was just that she seemed so alive and she was just so friendly. [She emphasized] how precious the world is, and the animals, they are amazing.”
The meeting not only impacted the kids, but also their parents.
Aiden’s mom, Leigh Markey, said her son has been part of the Green Team for the past few years and is passionate about the environment, even correcting his parents at home about what they should be recycling.
As for Goodall, Leigh Markey agreed that she was warm, kind and inspiring.
“She told her story of how growing up she wanted to go live in the jungle and work with animals,” she said, “how she just followed her dreams and persisted and followed her passion and was able to do incredible things. Literally up until the day she died, she was doing what she loved.”
Mike Pietrus, Henry’s dad, said it was clear the entire experience had a profound impact on his son and his classmates – both the film and meeting Goodall.
“It seemed to show the kids that their actions can make a difference,” he said. “They all seemed genuinely proud and excited that their actions made a positive difference in the world, and I think being recognized for that really inspired them to continue researching and advocating for things they care about to make the world a better place.”
As for the documentary, the Green Team was very scientific in its approach to the problem. They began by counting the number of plastic sporks used during a single lunch period, which turned out to be 144. Doing the math, that meant their school was sending 26,000 sporks per school year into the waste stream.
Now add the district’s nine other schools, and that number jumps to around 390,000. The Green Team leveraged the data to lobby the district to purchase a new dishwasher, which it did.
Sue Crothers, founding director of the One Earth Young Filmmakers Contest, was duly proud of the youngsters and what they accomplished.
“‘The Dishwasher Quest’ is a story about their activism,” Crothers said, adding the film was shown Sept. 21 at the Davis Theater in Chicago to rave reviews. “It is so uplifting. We had a sold-out event and it was one of the crowd favorites.”
Best of all, perhaps, is the fact that Goodall herself viewed the film.
“While she was traveling, I sent the link and I got a response that she thoroughly enjoyed it,” Crothers said.
Aiden Merkey said that half of the prize money went toward the new dishwasher.
“It was so important to get the dishwasher fixed,” he said. “What we use now is reusable trays and forks and spoons instead of one-use plastic and trays.”
Added Henry Pietrus: “We worked pretty hard on the video. Some of my classmates, they did interviews, and I was the narrator. It was cool, and my mom was the director so she recorded me doing it.
“It just felt good.”