The Millon Bottle Pledge was started by Andy Sward. You might be thinking who is Andy Sward? Well, Andy is going across Canada on foot cleaning up the roads and collecting bottles for his Million Bottle Pledge. But according to Andy’s math, he will not be able to collect 1 million bottles and cans before he is 104 years old.
Last spring, Andy was cleaning up the Sea to Sky Highway and lots of kids in my class were saying they saw him. My teacher read to us about his pledge and it was around the time of Earth Day, so we decided to help Andy.
For Earth Day, our class went from Spring Creek Community School to Cheakamus collecting bottles and other garbage. I had a great time helping clean up the environment. We collected about 60 bottles for Andy’s Million Bottle Pledge. My teacher sent him a message saying that we had collected some bottles for his pledge, along with a quote: “Be the change you want to see in the world.”
One year later, my teacher reached out to Andy to see if he wanted to come to pick up bottles and garbage for Earth Day. He said he was about to reach out to ask if he could come with us. My class thought that was crazy timing.
We met Andy on the Thursday before Earth Day. He came into the classroom and told us about the pledge. We met Oskoe, Andy’s cart that he picks up garbage with. We started our walk at Spring Creek Community School and made it to Bayshores Park. We had made Andy a card to thank him for cleaning up the Sea to Sky Highway. There were a lot of quotes on the card.
We went back to school. Then my teacher got a message from Andy saying that he was going to laminate the card the class made him. At recess, some kids and I counted the bottles and cans we got on our walk. We got another 10 bottles. That may not be that much, but it still helps Andy’s Million Bottle Pledge. Anyone can make a difference. Like Dr. Seuss says, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it’s not.”
