In not much time, the oceans around us will have more plastic than fishes because whatever garbage enters the water will never break down or dissolve in the water and will stay as a permanent part at the bottom of the oceans.
The ocean is a vast, magical and beautiful place. But our generation has been ruining this beauty. And when you disturb nature, nature also finds a way to make the human race realize what harm it has been causing.
And then we come across the story of a kind gentleman, Nick Crooks who decided upon doing his part for saving Mother Nature and one day went to clean a beach near his house with his two little kids, Noah and Josh. But what the 8-year-old Noah found in the garbage astonished him and his family. He had found a treasure in the garbage.
Noah is an 8- year-old boy who is an old-school, even when he doesn't know the definition of the term yet. His hobbies include gardening, reading, and writing and he likes things in their true form, without any adulteration. Noah lives in Cornwall with his parents and an elder brother.
The 8-year-old has been a lover of nature since his childhood. The water, mountains, and greenery have been the kind of presence that Noah likes to be around if asked to choose a holiday destination.
The month of January brought in a lot of holidays for the school-going children and Noah was one of those children. With so many extended holidays, Noah could not understand what to do at home and to make things even worse, a storm hit the UK on 2nd and 3rd January 2018.
An extratropical cyclone hit major parts of Europe, and the UK was affected too. The storm came with winds as heavy as 100 mph and destroyed everything that came in its way. From electricity to homes, to roads, all had been damaged and caused widespread damage.
Noah, who has been a nature lover was deeply moved by the destruction that had been made around him. He loved the beaches of Cornwall and was really upset when he saw the ravaged condition of the beaches because of the storm that moved everything and everybody.
The tumult caused by the storm brought in pin-drop silence after it. People were scared and traumatized by the anger of mother nature. It was very difficult for people who had witnessed the storm to go back to their normal lives with all the destruction around them.
Noah was alone all through his holidays because there were no friends who would come out to play with him. All the parents were scared after the storm and did not want to risk the safety of their children so almost all children were on house-arrest, and that left Noah without any friends to enjoy the holidays with. But his life was going to change real soon..
The little kid loved and adored nature because of his father, Nick Crooks. Nick had been a fairly aware person and knew about the deteriorating conditions of mother nature, and that built an interest in Noah as well. He wanted to do something to improve the suffocating condition of nature.
Noah is unlike other children of his age. He rarely sees any cartoon shows or channels, instead, his interest has been developed in awareness and educational channels like Nat Geo, Discovery, Animal Planet, etc. He liked watching documentaries on nature and the things related to it.
The twist in Noah's ordinary holidays came when one day he was sitting with his father and was watching Blue Planet Documentary II on BBC, and suddenly got inspired and an idea struck his mind. Little did he know that his idea would make him world-famous.
After watching the documentary and the aftermath of the storm, Noah decided to contribute to the welfare of nature. Noah was way smarter and understanding when compared to the other kids of his age. His mind was made and the next step that he discussed with his dad is something we should all learn from.
Noah was determined that he would contribute in improving the conditions of the aftermath of the storm, and therefore decided that he would go to Stanbury Mouth Beach with his father and brother and clear the garbage that was collected on the shore due to the waves of the storm. But he was unaware of the changes his life would face after going to the beach the next morning.
The Crooks went to the beach on a January morning and started cleaning the beach. Noah's initiative was impressive and inspirational for everyone who saw him. The majority of all that the boys found on the beach was plastic garbage. Plastic has been a major reason for the deaths of sea animals after they choke on it.
Suddenly while cleaning the beach, Noah found something extraordinary. He was just a little child and couldn't believe his eyes. The first thought that struck his mind was that finding such things only happens in movies and not in real life. He was excited as well as astonished.
Noah felt like his whole life had suddenly turned into a movie and he was the hero of this movie. His newfound treasure was the reason for such a feeling. And to his surprise, he and his story were indeed going to get famous very soon because of the event that had just taken place in his life.
Noah had started to feel lonely during his holidays when silence and emptiness prevailed after the Eleanor storm. And after he had discovered the unusual thing on the beach, he became famous and loneliness was out of his life in several ways.
As soon as Noah saw the treasure, he ran to his father to tell him about it. But, since Noah was just a child of 8 years, his father did not take him seriously and thought that he was playing some kind of mischief with him. Nick refused to believe Noah and ignored it for a while.
The eight-year-old was excited about opening the treasure but was also scared that it might kill his excitement and it might contain nothing at all. He had been elated and extremely excited about his recent discovery and was afraid that it might all end up in vain, so he just kept staring at it.
Noah loved reading fictional stories and during that moment when he had found a surprising and uncommon thing on the beach, he felt like his own life was one of those fictional stories that he read about. He did not want this movie-like scenario going on his life to end and not be feeling like a hero anymore.
Finally, Noah gathered all his strength to open the treasure that he had found. His father and brother encouraged him to open the surprise and look into it so that they could all know what could a surprise from the ocean have in store for them or for just the little child who had found it.
The surprising and unusual thing that Noah had discovered in the garbage was a green colored bottle which seemed like it contained something weird inside it. It was not water or soda inside the bottle, but something different. The odds of finding a bottle in the ocean are as vast as the ocean itself, but Noah had suddenly gotten lucky.
As soon as Noah opened the bottle in full excitement, he found a handwritten letter inside it. The letter was from a 10-year-old girl.
When Noah showed the bottle to Nick, he had to believe him. He said, “We were just picking stuff up from the waste that had been collating there and Noah suddenly said that he had found a message in a bottle. We didn’t think much of it at first — it was just in an old Sprite bottle, which I had to cut open on a rock. The letter was just wedged in there.”
The letter from the 10-year-old read: “Hi, my name is Jacquie Chmilar, I am ten-years-old and I live in Fort McMurray, AB. I’m visiting my grandparents who live in Musgrave Harbour, NFLD. If found call or email please.”
Jacquie lives in Fort McMurray, Alberta but that was not from where she had tossed the letter and the bottle in the ocean. Jacquie is the youngest of her siblings, and has two elder brothers and loving parents as her family.
Jacquie has always been a water lover. She loved the vastness of the oceans and the never-ending seas. Being around oceans has been her favorite thing, because the water seems to be as magical as nature can ever be, with the glitters and sparkles of the rays of the sun upon it. So, Jacquie had always expected magic from the water.
Jacquie had been on a visit to her grandparents house in Newfoundland, Canada during her vacations. It was only then that she wanted to do something exciting and went to her grandfather, whom she adored dearly. She was unaware what level of popularity she was going to gain very soon.
When Jacquie went to her grandfather to discuss doing something exceptional and uncommon, he came with the idea of writing a message on a piece of paper and folding it into a bottle, dashing it into the Atlantic Ocean. Her grandfather had heard and read a lot about people finding messages in Newfoundland so he thought of giving it a try.
Jacquie had tossed in the letter very casually and had not expected that someone would find the letter, although somewhere deep inside she had little hopes, but she never thought that it would all happen so soon and her letter would travel 3,440 km to be found in Cornwall.
After going through the letter again and again in astonishment, Nick and Noah decided to reply to the letter and reach out to Jacquie. She had jotted down her parent's contact details and Nick reached out to them via e-mail to tell them that his son had found the letter.
When Jacquie's mother, Suzanne Mouland-Chmilar received the mail and read it, at first she thought it was a kind of a joke. She could not believe that anything of this sort could happen in today's fast paced and introverted world. Then she saw the picture of the letter that was attached in the mail and screamed in surprise when she saw her daughter's handwriting.
After exchanging a few emails, the two kids got in contact with each other through their parents. They were happy to have found a friend in each other from such far-off distances but with the same kind of thoughts and liking. None of them had imagined such a thing to happen at such a small age.
Noah and Jacquie started as friends and credit the letter for their friendship. It was the letter that made them both acquainted with each other and after that, they both decided to continue writing letters back and forth to each other and never break the flow.
As soon as this magical news reached the media, various people came in to interview both Noah and Jacquie and they became famous overnight. Though they both are connected as two characters of their story, they haven't met each other in person. Both the kids hope to meet in person someday.
The most positive part of this whole magical event has been that the concern of seawater pollution has also reached the readers of the story, and is also spreading with each new reader. Nick Crooks says: “It all highlights the issue involving plastic pollution, so that’s good as well."
At first Noah's father Nick did not believe his discovery, but later he added, “When he said he had found a message, I just thought someone had shoved a piece of paper in and didn’t think much of it. But when we opened it and realized it was a message and that it had traveled so far, it brought out the inner child in me — I was quite excited about it. It’s not something you find every day.”
We should all learn from the Crooks family and try to do our bit for keeping the water bodies clean so that the human race does not have to suffer more and nature can be protected as well. Save nature, and then only will you be able to experience beautiful instances like Noah and Jacquie did, and make beautiful memories.
Noah and Jacquie have been friends ever since, and hope to continue being friends. Jacquie's mother tells, “She’s so excited to find new friends. She was also hoping someone would find it, I’m pretty sure they are going to be pen pals for life."