This is a guest post from Isobel Araujo of Whitney Young High School, co-founder of Message in a Bottle and a member of the ACE Chicago Media Team.

Overcoming obstacles can make you feel like a superhero. I have a story that sounds straight out of a comic book (or could be, with a few slight changes). It all started one stormy night when I couldn’t sleep, and I had an epiphany. There was a plastic water bottle on my dresser, and as was staring at it while a sinister flash of lightning blazed behind the bottle, followed by an ominous roll of thunder. I realized what a horrific challenge that plastic water bottles present to conservationists everywhere. According to the National Resources Defense Council,  “approximately 2 million tons of water bottles ended up in U.S. landfills” in 2005. That horrifies me.

I went to my wonderfully ecologically conscious biology teacher, Mr. Katz, and alerted him to this disaster. I was in luck, because he gave an assignment that was meant to have students design a community outreach project that was environmentally focused. I got together with a few peers and worked for months in our secret laboratory until one day, there was a breakthrough. Thus, the birth of operation: Message in a Bottle. The idea was that we would sell reusable, stainless steel water bottles in order to replace plastic water bottle waste that pollutes natural areas. The proceeds of the project would be donated to the Alliance for the Great Lakes, which cleans and preserves the Great Lakes. There was only one small flaw with our master plan. We needed to actually be able to sell the bottles. But of course we eagerly took steps to fundraise, purchase, and design our labels for the bottles first.

We knew there was only one way to solve our problem and  save the world from ecological disaster. We had to go see the Wizard of Oz. Wait sorry, I’m getting my stories confused. We had to go see the principal, Dr. Kenner. My group was slightly intimidated at the prospect of going to the all-powerful Wizard of Whitney Young High School, but we desperately needed her permission to sell bottles in the school store. So we bravely stepped into her office and made our plea. And we stepped out not only with permission to sell in the school store, but with Dr. Kenner’s promise that she would email all the principles she knew and tell them about our project to gather interest. We returned from Dr. Kenner’s office to a surprise parade around the school, thrown in our honor, with ticker tape, balloons, and shouts of “you’re my hero!” “Sign my backpack?”

Since our meeting with the principal, we have gathered more useful connections through Mr. Katz to set up a close relationship with ACE, and the wonderful superlady by the name of Sophie Ostlund. The sheer heroism of ACE makes me wonder if ACE is secretly an acronym for the Avenger’s Club for the Environment, or perhaps the Armored Conservationist Elite. Perhaps they have a secret headquarters in an underwater cave lair in the Bermuda Triangle. But no matter what, I know that I can count on the Alliance for Climate Education to be my hero.

(Click to see Isobel’s comic at full size)