West Newbury girl leads charge to clean up river

Apr. 12—While walking along the sandy shoreline of Plum Island one day, 12-year-old Kaeleigh Belanger of West Newbury saw a disturbing sight: a dead horseshoe crab whose body had been invaded by plastic.

Spurred by that example of death by pollution and other environmental concerns, the River Valley Charter School sixth-grader sat down and wrote a grant proposal to the Youth Ocean Conservation Summit for funding to help clean up local beaches.

The grant proposal, an endeavor Kaeleigh called "stressful" because it was a new type of writing for her, paid off and she just received $200.

Using the grant to purchase cleanup supplies, she and other students from the Newburyport charter school will conduct a beach cleanup May 15 on the north end of Plum Island at the mouth of the Merrimack River. The rain date is May 22.

Volunteers will go out in kayaks and small boats to fish trash out of the water before it makes its way to the ocean. The hope is to reduce the entanglement and ingestion of microplastics by marine life while educating boaters, beachgoers and the students' classmates.

"I could not be more proud of Kaeleigh," said River Valley Charter School teacher Ellen Link. "She is a very determined young lady. Her care and dedication give me hope."

Link said Kaeleigh and her peers have been learning about the Merrimack River watershed and the issue of debris in the river and the Atlantic Ocean.

In December, Kaeleigh and Link attended a virtual Youth Ocean Conservation Summit conference and spoke with children and young adults from around the world who presented ideas for conservation projects.

Buoyed by the conference, Kaeleigh began writing a grant application to the summit. With help from Link and her father, Kaeleigh said it took about two weeks and many drafts to complete the application.

"I was difficult to decide what I should put in and what I took out," she said.

"I've been very impressed with the dedication Kaeleigh has shown to the project," said her mother, Amy Belanger.

Link said the cleanup project aligns with the charter school's mission: to provide a rigorous academic program based on the Montessori philosophy and rooted in the history, culture and ecology of the Merrimack River Valley.

Fourth- and fifth-grade students at the school are taking part in a similarly themed program called Protect Our Prehistoric Pals.

The younger students are involved in cleaning Plum Island's estuary and marsh to provide a better nesting habitat for horseshoe crabs and raise awareness of their importance in vaccine production.

Dave Rogers is a staff writer with The Daily News. Email him at: drogers@newburyportnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @drogers41008.