2015 Essay Contest
Brooke Boardman - High School, essay winner for 2015 Esteemed Women of Michigan
$500 was awarded to Brooke sponsored by the Nathima Atchoo Trust
Brooke Boardman
International Academy, OKMA Campus
Making Michigan a Better Place for Everyone!
My name is Brooke Boardman and this is the story of how I helped make Michigan a better place for everyone. I am fifteen years old, and believe it or not, I have nearly a life-time of experience working to improve my community. It all started when I was five years old, in January of 2005. I overheard an announcement on the news that my favorite place, the Belle Isle Aquarium was going to close. The announcer said that no one cared about the Aquarium anymore and the money to run it had to be spent on other things because Detroit was in a fiscal crisis. I decided to take action and do whatever I could to save the Belle Isle Aquarium.
The first step was to tell my mother what I wanted to do. I told her that I wanted to save the Aquarium not only because I loved it, but because I knew that others loved it too, they just needed to be reminded. I also felt that the Aquarium was especially important to kids whose families couldn’t afford vacations that took them to places where they could see starfish, stingrays and seahorses. A picture of a seahorse in a book fails to capture the essence of it as a living thing. I knew if kids didn’t get the chance to see live fish they would miss that connection that fosters stewardship for nature. I also knew that the kids that would be most affected by closing the Aquarium were poor kids and that wasn’t fair. I wanted to protect the animals and I wanted to make sure that kids had a place to see them in real life.
My mom found a community meeting where people were going to discuss a strategy to save the Aquarium. I was excited to meet people who felt like I did. We went to the meeting and decided to make and sell “Friends of Belle Isle Aquarium” T-shirts to raise money and awareness that the Aquarium was threatened. We set up a table outside the Aquarium on the weekends and sold T-shirts and talked to people about how they could help save the Aquarium.
By now the word was out that the Aquarium was closing. A lot of families came to see it one last time. That kind of thinking frustrated me. I wanted people to get involved so that the Aquarium would always be open for them and their children. After all, the Aquarium stayed open for one hundred years even through tumultuous times in our history like the Great Depression, and two World Wars. I also reasoned that people needed places like an Aquarium even more when times were tough. I thought that the best way to change their thinking from visiting one last time, to wanting it open forever, was to talk to them. I suggested to my mother that if we bought little fish tattoos at the dollar store, we could put them on the kids while they were waiting in line to see the Aquarium and we could use that time to persuade their parents to donate and volunteer. It worked. We talked to thousands of people at that event and others between January and April that year. We raised a lot of money too. Nevertheless, on April 3, 2005 the Belle Isle Aquarium closed anyway. It was a shock! I thought all the people visiting and the money we raised had convinced everyone that the Aquarium was important to us as a community and should stay open.
I didn’t give up. I made a video and sent it to Mayor Kilpatrick explaining to him the importance of the Aquarium and asking him to reconsider his decision, but I never heard back from him. Luckily, the city asked our group for a favor. The Belle Isle Park Manager said they needed volunteers to take care of the koi fish. These are fish that live in the Aquarium pond in the summer but have to be moved inside the Aquarium for the winter. We agreed. Because we took care of the koi, the Park Manager gave us a key to the Aquarium. It was a big responsibility taking care of the fish and strange having the key to such a famous place. We took care of the fish in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 and we moved them from the Aquarium every spring into the pond and back to the Aquarium every fall. It was a dirty job and a lot of work. We also continued to raise money and sell T-shirts at events like Detroit River Days, Dally in the Alley, Concert of Colors, and the Home and Garden Show at Ford Field.
Then something happened! The mayor who said the Aquarium didn’t matter and Detroit couldn’t afford it, resigned. Next, the city allowed us to repair the Aquarium’s leaky roof with the money we had raised. We were even allowed to open the Aquarium for an event called, “Shiver on the River.” This is a family event on Belle Isle on the first Saturday in February. Lots of people came to the Aquarium even though there weren’t any fish on display! People really missed the little Aquarium. By now I knew it was little because I was eight years old and I had been to Shedd Aquarium and SeaWorld. Those aquariums were large and had dolphins but I thought the Belle Isle Aquarium was even better because it was small and beautiful and I could visit often. I remembered a quote by Leighton Taylor I heard my mother say, “A great aquarium does not have to be big to be good. A great aquarium inspires love and concern for the natural world.” That quote expressed precisely how the Belle Isle Aquarium made me feel.
Soon we had a new mayor, Mayor Dave Bing. He let our group throw a fundraiser at the Aquarium called, “A Night at the Aquarium” and we raised money to make more repairs to the building. We had a silent auction and I donated a painting I created of a seahorse. It raised $200.00. The success of the event made people excited about getting the Aquarium reopened. Mayor Bing listened and on September 12, 2012, when I was twelve years old, I stood next to him when he cut the ribbon reopening the Belle Isle Aquarium. Mayor Bing sent me a proclamation thanking me for my work.
My experience helping to reopen the Belle Isle Aquarium taught me that even a kid can make a significant difference in their community and that Margaret Mead was right when she said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” I am proud that my contribution helped to make Michigan a better place for everyone!