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Youth Heroes |
Amy, allie, & david steinmetz
Seven years ago, Amy, Allie and David Steinmetz's parents gave them a unique holiday present. They signed the whole family up participate in a program called "Adopt-A-Shore" in their hometown of Boca Raton, Florida. The Adopt-A-Shore program is sponsored by Keep Florida Beautiful, the state affiliate of the national Keep America Beautiful organization. Recognizing that shoreline litter is not only a nuisance, but also a threat to the health of marine life and shore animals, the Adopt-a-Shore program commits volunteers to being responsible for performing a comprehensive cleanup of a predetermined stretch of shoreline at least four times per year. The Steinmetz children were shocked to see that while people would take the time to properly dispose of gum wrappers and water bottles, they seemed to think nothing of disposing of their cigarette butts all over the beach. After tallying the litter they collected at each quarterly beach clean up, it quickly became clear that cigarette litter accounted for a disproportionately high proportion of the trash they were cleaning up. In order to tackle the cigarette litter problem, Amy, Allie and David started the "No Butts About It" litter campaign. Their first effort was to create a poster urging beachgoers to properly dispose of all cigarette litter. This poster was eventually posted at every public beach in Boca Raton . They also worked to ensure that free disposable ashtrays were distributed at beach gatehouses. When the family relocated to Woodbridge, Connecticut they saw how the problem of littered cigarette butts extended beyond Florida and they expanded the "No Butts About It" campaign. They modified their poster so that it applied to cigarette litter everywhere, not just on beaches, and increased their efforts to make the public aware of the problem of cigarette litter, including launching a website. The No Butts About It litter campaign is has become a national effort, with local action kit available from the website to help other children work with their families in their communities to address the issue of cigarette litter. In August of 2005, Senator Lieberman met with the Steinmetz kids to discuss the challenges of their grass roots campaign after learning of their ongoing efforts to put an end to cigarette litter. Senator Lieberman presented the Steinmetz children with his "Joe's Heroes" award in recognition of their tireless efforts. During their meeting, he also learned of the grassroots effort that Ally, Allie and David had undertaken to try to get legislation introduced that would compel cigarette manufacturers to place an advisory on each pack of cigarettes advising customer to, "Please dispose of all cigarette waste properly. Do not litter." The Senator worked directly with Amy, Allie and David to draft legislation supporting their efforts. This legislation, the Cigarette Litter Prevention Act was introduced on May 8, 2006. |
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