S: Is for Kids saving the Planet!

Melissa Poe was 9 years old when she began a campaign for a cleaner environment by writing a letter to then President Bush. Through her own efforts, her letter was reproduced on over 250 donated billboards across the country. The response to her plea for help was so overwhelming that Poe established Kids For A Cleaner Environment (Kids F.A.C.E.) in 1989. There are now 300,000 members of Kids FACE worldwide and is the world's largest youth environmental organization. Poe has also petitioned the National Park Service to implement a "Children's Forest" project in every national park. In 1992, she was invited as one of only six children in the world to speak at the Earth Summit in Brazil as part of the Voices of the Future Program. In 1993, she was given a Caring Award for her efforts by the Caring Institute. Since the organization started, Kids F.A.C.E. members have distributed and planted over 1 million trees! Ongoing tree-planting projects include the creation of Kid's Yards - backyard wildlife habitats and currently Kids F.A.C.E. is involved in the exciting Earth Odyssey, which is a great way to start helping. "Starting the club turned out to be a way to help people get involved with the environment. Club members started doing things like recycling, picking up litter and planting trees as well as inviting other kids to join their club." "We try to tell kids that it's not OK to be a slacker," she explains. "You need to start being a responsible, environmentally friendly person now, pronto, before you become a resource-sucking adult." Poe, now 23, has mobilized a membership of 300,000 young people and traveled the world encouraging young people to adopt earth-friendly attitudes and habits. Among her speaking engagements, she has addressed the Voices of the Future Program at the Earth Summit in Brazil. Launching a massive, national print advertising and letter-writing campaign, recruiting advertisers who donated 250 billboards, across the country, in support of her message. She has produced public service announcements and appeared on several television, radio programs and events throughout the United States. Among these events is the Kid's Earth Flag, in which several thousand children from across the world united to create an environmental display covering the Mall in Washington D.C. The organization also provides education and awareness-building programs for children, such as Earth Odyssey and the Kid's Forest. Since her graduation from college, Poe has been working for the Nature Conservancy and is currently writing a book about her efforts. Read more about what inspired Melissa to start at www.kidsface.org

Through out her young life she has worked to save the planet for all of us and that is a F.A.C.T that needs to be recognized and applauded