Young voice heard on environment

Six-year-old Ellia Niemi is a determined child with a big heart for the environment – more specifically, the beach and marine creatures. She’s the mastermind behind a beach cleanup planned for this month, along with a music festival fundraiser that will benefit efforts to sink the Voici Bernadette freighter.

“I was really sad to see all the litter on that day,” Ellia said, recalling a recent trip to a St. Lucie County beach. During their walk along the beach, Ellia and her family witnessed a baby sea turtle making its way to the water.

Instead of being excited and happy for the baby turtle, Ellia became upset. The baby turtle had to crawl through the trash before hitting the water.

Her step-dad, Nick Colletti, said Ellia’s response was to host a community beach cleanup. It wasn’t enough for them to just pick up some trash while they were there.

“Everyone made the mess,” Colletti said, recalling Ellia’s statement that day. “Everybody should have to clean it up.”

From there, Colletti and Ellia’s mom, Alicia, got started helping Ellia organize the beach cleanup. It didn’t take long for the vision to expand into a fundraising effort to further her goal to cleaning up the waters and providing a safe place for sea life.

“While keeping the beaches litter free is very important, the problems with our water go much further than that,” Ellia’s mom said. “We want Ellia to be able to enjoy the beach for the rest of her life. We were lucky enough to watch a sea turtle leave its nest and head out to sea that day. If we don’t take care of the ocean, that could become a thing of the past.”

Ellia’s family began researching groups and organizations they could donate to and discovered MMPS Environmental – the group responsible for raising funds to sink the Voici Bernadette off the coast of Fort Pierce, creating an artificial reef for divers and sea life alike.

“MMPS is making a difference,” Colletti said, which made the decision all the easier for who would benefit from the music festival.

The pieces have fallen into place and the beach cleanup and music fest will be held Saturday, Nov. 10, beginning with the cleanup from 10 a.m. to noon at the Surfside Beach access point in Fort Pierce.

Those participating can expect to clean one mile of beach heading south along South Hutchinson Island.

Following the cleanup, various musical groups will take to a stage set up at 222 S. Ocean Drive, in a grassy lot at the end of the beach cleanup area. There will be vendors, food trucks, raffles and a donation collection.

The musical groups are reggae bands and will include headliner Juanjamon, Minus Turmoil and Flint Blade Duo.

The festival will go until 10 p.m. Saturday and will also include a by-donation yoga session from One Yoga Planet at noon.

“It’s so uplifting,” said Caitlyn Carmichael, MMPS Environmental’s liaison with Ellia. With all the negativity in the world, she said it was great to see how a child can bring the community together to work for a common cause.

St. Lucie County Marine Resource Coordinator Jim Oppenborn said the ship is not quite ready for sinking, though it’s very close.

The biggest challenge has been the fund-raising, which is needed in order to get the ship sunk. The next big challenge will be determining how to sink the Voici Bernadette. Crews could pump sand into the cargo hold or dump tons of concrete rubble into the ship.

“I just don’t know,” Oppenborn said of the method the county would pursue. It depends on any number of factors, including environmental permits for sand and figuring logistics for hauling concrete onto the ship.

Regardless of the method or how long it takes to gather the necessary funds, Oppenborn said the ship will eventually get sunk. “We’ll get it done,” he said.

And Ellia’s fund-raiser will certainly help get the crew that much closer to its goal.

 

Want to go?

World Love Beach Cleanup Festival

  • Nov. 10 – cleanup 10 a.m. to noon, music fest noon to 10 p.m.
  • Cost – Free, donations welcome and proceeds from purchases of refreshments and from vendors will be donated
  • Location – Surfside Beach access point, Fort Pierce, for the cleanup; 222 S. Ocean Dr., Fort Pierce for music fest.

Comments are closed.