She has a passion for the environment

Lake Norman Elementary student Isabella Limon discovered her passion for the environment by accident.

Affectionately known as "B" to her family and friends, the fifth-grader recently needed to raise some money for her trip to Australia as a student ambassador through People to People. Student ambassadors represent their school, community, state and country while traveling abroad, learning about other cultures through activities and meet local citizens.

"I volunteered to do little jobs in my neighborhood to earn money for the trip," B said. She made a list of chores she was willing to do for a fee, including walking dogs, raking leaves, washing cars and picking up trash and handed out flyers to her neighbors to drum up business.

One neighbor, Eric Peterson, took her up on her litter collection offer and took Limon out on Lake Norman in a kayak to pick up pollutants.

"My wife and I were extremely pleased that B was interested in the same things that we are and wants to help her environment," said Peterson.

"She was out there for three days, for two to three hours a day and I couldn't believe what came out of the lake," said her mother, Tammy.

"There were 200 golf balls, a cash register and bottles," B said, naming off only a few of the items she collected. She then spread out pictures of the staggering amount of trash bags she and Peterman disposed of.

"You could tell most of the trash came from adults, so she wants to impact kids her own age and teach them not to litter," Tammy added.

After working with Peterson, B decided she wanted to do more than clean up litter. She created two large presentation boards for her class at Lake Norman Elementary and is working on a Web site and blog about the environment.

"She's going to speak to other classes around the school and give her presentation again," said her teacher Kelly Chappell. "Most children that go here live on the lake, but I don't think they've seen what's in it and they need to."

Chappell said she believes what B is doing is "amazing."

"I want to teach kids how bad it is to litter and pollute,' B said. "It's infecting the environment and I want to get other kids to actively help with picking up litter."

Tammy said she would love to eventually teach classes at the house with B about helping the environment and have other local children take kayak trips around the lake to do their part.

B believes that now is the time to educate and impact her fellow classmates.

"When we get older, if we don't know any better, we'll just do the same thing that the grown-ups are doing now," she said. "They need to know now why they shouldn't litter."

"It's wonderful that she wants to take her message to school," Peterson said. "Unfortunately, for at least a century now, kids have learned by watching others that it's ok to litter. Just watch at a stop light when someone reaches out the window and dumps their ashtray out.

"Children assume that if they see this, it's ok to do. We need to teach them that it's not, it's harmful and that they can halt this trend, making sure that another generation doesn't continue with it. If B can catch other kids ahead of the game and get them interested, we can correct this course."

"I am so proud of her that she has such a genuine concern about the environment," Tammy said. "It started out small, as a way to raise money for her trip, but it's going to bring awareness to what is happening to our beautiful lake.

"Hopefully after hearing about this, more people will want to do their part because it's unbelievably sad."