Dear Reader,

My name is Dylan Senesy and I am a middle schooler at NOMAD in San Francisco, USA. I am reaching out to you through this survey because a pressing issue is not getting enough attention: plastic in the ocean. I’m making a documentary about plastic in the ocean. Not only am I doing a documentary, but I am also making a visual presentation to show how much plastic trash ends up in the ocean in various places around the world.  I need your help to make this project impactful.

You have probably heard it before.” Oh, there is to much plastic in the ocean, oh I will just stop using so much plastic and the world will be saved!” Then the next day you are back to using plastic straws and buying plastic bags. Not a lot of people actually know what we’re doing to the Earth. Well our oceans are covered in plastic waste. We are drowning in 8 billion tons of trash and we just keep making more.

Here’s what I need from you:

1. Pick up trash from a beach of your choice

2. Fill out this survey about the trash you found

3. Upload a picture of you with the trash and tell me where you found it. 

Once I have responses from people like you from all over the world, I will print your pictures out and type up the other information that you will provide me via the survey. After that I will pin your picture to a huge map depicting where you found the trash. I am so driven to fix this issue that I am making an art installation of a wave pool full of trash that I have collected in my daily life to really drive the point home. For my art piece, I'd like it if the photo focused on your hands holding the trash (as in the sample). But, if you can't do that, I'll take any photo!

Thank you so much for reading this email and contributing to a better future for the ocean.

Sincerely,

Dylan Senesy, 6th grade

San Francisco, USA