Island Lake PS student raises funds to protect clownfish
February 14, 2023
ORANGEVILLE, ON – Island Lake Public School student, Tanner, isn’t clowning around when it comes to protecting the declining habitat of the clownfish.
Tanner’s mission to save the clownfish started in school when his teacher gave him and the other students in their class a dollar, for their Dollar Project Initiative.
“My teacher gave each of us a dollar to get our fundraising started. We couldn’t keep the dollar but had to find a way to use it to make more money to donate to something we were interested in,” said Tanner.
Tanner’s research him lead him to discovering the ‘Saving Nemo Project’ at Flinders University in Australia – the project’s aim is to work on habitat conservation for the clownfish through education and research, as well as supply stores with nursery bred fish, because clownfish and other fish like them can be easily bred in captivity.
Since the popularity of movies Finding Nemo and Finding Dory, clownfish have been a popular addition to home aquariums. As a result, over 1 million fish from the clownfish family are collected from the wild each year, causing significant population declines.
To raise money for his cause, Tanner drew a colourful picture of ‘Nemo’ and went about asking friends and family for donations. If anyone gave a donation they received a copy of the drawing with a personal thank you note. Tanner’s one dollar soon grew to $200.
Tanner says he is passionate about anything that lives in the ocean, a sentiment that was also expressed by his mother Angela, “He was pretty excited and had a great time doing it.”
Categories: Spotlight On Schools Tags: Experiential Learning • UGKindness • UGLearnGreen