Letters to the Editor

April 22, 2022

The author and her sisters Olive and Willa at the Central Park Zoo

Dear Editor,

I am the river flowing I am the desert dry I am the four winds blowing I am the sunset sky

I am the forest breathing I am the ocean wide I am the storm clouds gathering I am the mountain high

I am the Earth

–“I Am the Earth,” Glyn Lehmann

A sunny 70° day and no clouds in the sky. It is Friday, the 22nd of April. Not just Friday, the 22nd, but Earth Day. To celebrate the beautiful weather and our environment, my nanny Stephanie, my sisters Willa and Olive, and I walked to Central Park, inhaling the gorgeous day. (Earth Day fell during our school spring break!)

Since we don’t get to do this very often, this was a treat. We spent five-sixths of the day in Central Park, reading, eating, playing, jump-roping, relaxing, building fairy houses. We also brought trash bags and gloves, collecting litter around the park. Mostly, we found trash like bottle caps or plastic wrappers or dried up gum, but along the way we also collected trash from people, too. (Doing extra good deeds doesn’t hurt.)

We chose to eat lunch under a shady tree. We had brought our lunch in reusable bags and ate with recyclable cutlery. Instead of plastic containers, we packed the main course in thermoses. And instead of plastic water bottles, we brought steel reusable ones. (As they say, Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. The three R’s. That’s what the R in Earth stands for.)

After lunch, we went back to collecting trash. With Olive as trash bag holder and Willa and me as trash-picker-uppers, we made a pretty good team, and when the job was done, I could tell that the park was a lot cleaner. I guess the Sun thought so too, because it shined extra bright all afternoon (pleasant, but not pleasant). After all that trash cleaning, Stephanie brought our picnic into the sun and we sunbathed. After a while, we got antsy, so we found dirt patches and collected sticks and set up log cabins for fairies.

After a while, that kind of got boring, too, but Stephanie to the rescue! She’d brought jump ropes and books. When that got boring, we danced. When we got exhausted, we tied four of the five jump ropes together and played Child on the Loose! where Olive held one end of the four jump ropes and I held the other (like a child leash) and she’d pull me around, occasionally having me let go and then she’d run away. Willa stayed out of the fun, though, and made us take apart the jump ropes, screaming “YOU’LL BREAK THEM! YOU’LL BREAK THEM!” the whole time.

To top off all the fun, before we left for the park, we baked soy- and gluten-free cookies, and I decorated bags for them. Then, we gave them out to homeless people in our neighborhood and to other people we’re grateful for (for example, the doormen in our building). So overall, we had a very Earthy Earth Day.

I hope all of you Insiders had one too!

Sienna Beck / New York City

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Sienna Beck is a 9-year-old author who loves writing short stories. She goes to a camp called Writopia, and once entered a play contest and was selected to have her play professionally performed by trained actors. Sienna has two sisters, Willa and Olive, and they all go to P.S. 87 in New York City. Sienna likes animals, including pets and mostly dogs. She also wants to be THE PRESIDENT when she grows up.