EDMONDS — Edmonds Mayor Mike Rosen and community leaders presented four former Hazelwood Elementary fourth and fifth-grade students with the President’s Environmental Youth Award on Thursday night, an award given out by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for K-12 youth environmental stewardship projects.
Kaleb Wolde, Malia Nymeyer, Takumi Tanimura and Avery Poisal won for the federal agency’s Region 10, which covers the states of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and 271 federally recognized tribes.
The award honored the students’ contribution to a year-long documentary highlighting the Edmonds Underwater Park, a marine protected area located just off the city’s shore.
With guidance from Barbara Bromley, a fourth-grade teacher at Hazelwood Elementary, and Annie Crawley, a scuba diver and ocean advocate, the students blended science and art into the film, highlighting different species and the importance of conserving marine habitats.
Wolde, who studied the giant Pacific octopus for the film, said he was shocked to learn how large the invertebrate could grow. From tip to tip, the species can measure 12-14 feet across, weighing in at up to 100 pounds, according to the Seattle Aquarium.
“It sneaks up on its prey to kill it,” Wolde added.
The students conducted interviews with marine experts, researched local conservation efforts and created portraits of community members engaged in environmental conservation during the production of the documentary.
After completion, the film reached more than 1,000 community members through screenings at the Environmental Youth Summit, state science conferences and the Cascadia Art Museum.
Since working on the project, Nymeyer said she’s become more interested in marine sciences.
“I think it was very just like an unknown thing around me, I was just like, ‘Okay, it’s an ocean, there’s animals,’” she said. “But knowing more about them and stuff [has] definitely made me more interested about different animals and stuff and how they live.”
The Edmonds Waterfront Center was filled with parents and city residents as the students accepted their award on Thursday night. Rosen congratulated the students on their work, encouraging them to continue their conservation and environmental advocacy work.
“What you did is amazing, and it will have a huge impact,” he said. “You have a voice, and people are listening. Keep using it.”
Eliza Aronson: 425-339-3434; eliza.aronson@heraldnet.com; X: @ElizaAronson.
Eliza’s stories are supported by the Herald’s Environmental and Climate Reporting Fund.
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