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Mari Copeny - Water Activist

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16-year-old activist, philanthropist, and "future president" Mari Copeny is on the front lines of tackling America's water crisis head on, and helping kids to embrace their power through equal opportunity. When the Flint Water Crisis began instead of feeling helpless Mari decided to use her voice to help out her community and to fight for the kids in Flint. Since then she has expanded her efforts to help communities across the nation dealing with toxic drinking water.

"My generation will fix this mess of a government. Watch us."

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16-year-old activist, philanthropist, and "future president" Mari Copeny is on the front lines of tackling America's water crisis head on, and helping kids to embrace their power through equal opportunity. When the Flint Water Crisis began instead of feeling helpless Mari decided to use her voice to help out her community and to fight for the kids in Flint.

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Marley Davis
#1000BlackGirlBooks

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Marley Dias is the 13-year-old social activist behind #1000BlackGirlBooks, an international movement to collect and donate children's books that feature Black girls as the lead character. With the help of her mother's foundation, GrassROOTS Community Foundation, Marley launched the #1000BlackGirlBooks drive in November of 2015, leveraging the power of social media to reach a larger audience.

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Yash Gupta - Sight Learning

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My name is Yash Gupta and I'm from Irvine, CA! I myself have worn glasses since I was only 5 years old. As a freshman at Northwood High School however, I broke my glasses sparring taekwondo and had to go to school without them for about a week as a new pair was made.

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Nicholas Lowinger - Gotta Have Sole

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Melati and Isabel Wijsen - Bye Bye Plastic Bags

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Bye Bye Plastic Bags - Say No To Plastic Bags

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Hannah Testa - Hannah4Change

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NGO Founder Advocate Educator TEDx Speaker Change Maker Eco-Warrior Mentor Author
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​ Hannah Testa, Founder of Hannah4Change, has been an environmentalist activist most of her life - all 18 years of it. Since the age of four, Hannah has made it her mission to fight for the planet and its future. Her passion is protecting people, animals, and the planet through education, awareness, and policy work. With knowledge, we can influence change in this world.

By the age of 10, Hannah realized that one of our biggest environmental problems is one that we can control: plastic pollution. Since then, Hannah has delivered presentations to over 3 0,000 children and adults across the world, including businesses and governments, on how to reduce their plastic footprint.​ She conceived and spearheaded Plastic Pollution Awareness Day in 2017 and 2018, the first event(s) of its kind and seen on national TV and 300,000 viewers of the local news in her state. Start a similar event in your state! Hannah also influenced Fulton County GA to pass a bill in 2019 to eliminate single-use plastics from government properties. In 2020, Hannah was part of a small handful of advocates that introduced the federal bill, The Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act. This is considered the most comprehensive approach to plastic and packaging ever introduced in the U.S. Congress and is the product of over a year's worth of intensive stakeholder

Hannah also worked with leading two non-profits to develop a school curriculum to educate students across the world on ocean health. In addition to the curriculum, an art contest that served to raise awareness on the health of our oceans raised $500,000 that was donated to ocean conservation organizations such as The Nature Conservancy. Over 110,000 students from 45 countries participated in this program in 2018-2019 and several student-led efforts to reduce single-use plastics were launched. Find out more here.

Closely linked to plastic pollution and ocean health, Hannah fights for solutions to the world's most pressing issue - climate change. She has marched and spoken at events across the world. She recognizes that climate change affects all of us - regardless of boundaries - and that climate change disproportionately affects the disadvantaged populations in our society.

Hannah is passionate about animal rights. She has realized if we don't speak up and take action now, some of the planet's most majestic creatures will be extinct before Hannah becomes a mother. Hannah has raised tens of thousands of dollars in funds, awareness, and support for horses, chimps, orcas, dolphins, elephants, and rhinos. She introduced a state bill to ban the trade of ivory, rhino horn, shark fin, and in 2020 collaborated with other NGOs on a federal bill to protect sharks. Learn more here.

She is also a big believer in healthy, organic living and a vegan lifestyle. She collaborated with Kashi to co-create 3 healthy Kashi by Kids cereals in 2018, healthy snacks in 2019, and 2 more healthy cereals in 2020. You'll see Hannah on the back of these products! Learn more here. Hannah was also involved in the impactful "Million Dollar Vegan" campaign in 2019 to bring awareness to plant-based diets.

Corporate sustainability is an important issue for Hannah and she has had much success in this area. In 2018, Hannah4Change was one of 2 dozen organizations that successfully influenced Starbucks to develop a sustainable coffee cup. She has influenced restaurants to switch from plastic to paper straws. Hannah has also worked with several companies to promote their journey to sustainability.

Hannah serves as a Youth Ambassador, Advisor, or Board Member for several organizations and non-profits. In her spare time, Hannah writes environmental articles for her local county magazine, MyForsyth Magazine. She also wrote her first book (a Best Seller!) called Taking on the Plastics Crisis released in October 2020 and became a TEDx speaker in November with her inspiring speech about youth activism.
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Learn more about Hannah here.

The oceans may appear healthy, but they are suffering from plastic pollution, over-fishing, ocean acidification, and other causes.

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NGO Founder Advocate Educator TEDx Speaker Change Maker Eco-Warrior Mentor Author ​​ Hannah Testa, Founder of Hannah4Change, has been an environmentalist activist most of her life - all 18 years of it. Since the age of four, Hannah has made it her mission to fight for the planet and its future.