Written by Jean Beagle, age 7 -- Reprinted from How We Made the World a Better Place : Kids and Teens Write on How They Changed Their Corner of the World.

HOW IT STARTED

When I was a baby, my mom and dad would push me in a baby jogger. We would pick up soda cans while my mom and dad ran. Before I could talk, whenever I saw a can I would point to it. It was fun picking up cans. We ran a lot of miles and picked up many cans.

When I was five, I went camping with my mom, dad, and a friend at Bastrop State Park. The first night, we went for a bike ride. I rode on my dad's bike. There was so much trash that the road did not look pretty. The second day, when we went for a run along the same road, we picked up all the cans - about one hundred of them. The road looked much prettier when we went home. I am now too big for the baby jogger.

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HOW IT CONTINUES

But I still pick up cans wherever we go, and my mom and dad still bring back cans from their runs. We store the cans behind and inside our garage. When I was very little, we would take the cans after church to a can cruncher in a store parking lot. It was fun hearing all the cans crunching, but it was messy.

Now we store the cans until we get a lot of them, then we take them on our friend's big truck to the recycling place. One time, I sold 410 pounds at once.

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HOW IT ADDS UP

I have sold over 1,000 pounds of cans, and I am only seven years old. I help the world by making the roads, the lakes, and the trails prettier, and because all my cans are recycled.

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HOW YOU CAN HELP

-Are you inspired by this Earth-friendly youth? Find out what YOU can do to help the environment
-Make a donation to a charity that helps the environment

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