Marilyn Putnam isn’t surprised that her grandchildren have taken such a shine to picking up trash. It could be a kid thing.
“I was a teacher on Bainbridge at Happy Days Nursery School for 26 years,” Putnam said. “As my grandchildren began to attend my school, we always did litter pickup as part of our program. If you asked the children what the highlight of school was, they’d say litter day.”
Shortly after moving to Poulsbo after 35 years on Bainbridge, Putnam joined with some of her Poulsbo Place neighbors to organize a city-wide cleanup day. That first event in 2007 brought 25 people together to collect 35 bags of litter around town, and has continued each year.
Living with that example, Marcus and Stella McCurty, her grandkids, always know exactly what they want to do when they come to her house.
“When they’re here, they want to go for walks – they want their gloves and their grabbers,” Putnam said.
When word got around that Bainbridge illustrator Linda Ayriss was looking for kids and families to feature in her new project, “S is for Save the Planet: A How-to-Be-Green Alphabet,” someone brought Marcus and Stella to her attention.
Brad Herzog’s book, which Ayriss will present at Eagle Harbor Book Co. this weekend, has something for every age. The alphabet verse highlights simple ways in which kids and adults can take better care of their planet. Sidebars aimed at older readers go into more detail with statistics, problems and solutions.
Ayriss’ illustrations make use of island families, scenes and spots including Eagle Harbor Church and the Wilkes Elementary School playground.
The artist said it wasn’t difficult to opt for working with Marcus and Stella, who ended up appearing in several spreads. For starters, they were adorable. But that wasn’t so much the point.
“They seemed to be a family that’s already living green,” Ayriss said. “They have the cute little trash picker-uppers and the gloves, and the whole deal. And so they were really well prepared to help us out with that.”
Putnam, who now leads special camps at Kids Discovery Museum, remains a huge proponent of not just starting anti-litter education early, but keeping the message going as children grow. That way, she hopes, litter laws could seep into our consciousness the same way seat belt and helmet laws have, to the point where littering just feels wrong.
“What I found in my preschool is that kids are like sponges, and they take it all in. And they understand (trash),” she said. “And they think it’s disgusting. They’re asking lots of questions, and trying to figure it out.
“It’s a great place to start them, and to learn. But if we get into the schools, and if it’s not taught, and it’s not taught by the parents, it becomes a faded dream.”
Pick up the pace
Award-winning Bainbridge Island artist and illustrator Linda Ayriss presents “S is for Save the Planet” at 11 a.m. April 18 at Eagle Harbor Book Co. See www.eagleharborbooks.com for more information.
