Weatherford Girl Raises Money To Eliminate Plastic Waste In Ocean

Maya Hummel and her family have a passion for the ocean. Her parents are both certified scuba-divers, which has made Maya realize the importance of our eco-system.

“Plastic bags, they go in the coral and they kill the coral. And turtles think they're jellyfish, so they eat them,” said Maya Hummel.

She came to her parents at the beginning of the school year, concerned with how the school only provided plastic water bottles in the cafeteria. Soon after, they started a GoFundMe account to raise money to provide each student at her elementary school with a reusable water bottle.

This past Monday, Maya got up in front of her whole school to talk about her mission.

“I talked about getting all the plastic out of the school because it's going into the ocean,” said Maya.

The Hummel's have already raised enough money to provide every student at West Elementary with a water bottle.

“They're on order. So, in about two weeks, they should arrive here at the school,” Heather Hummel, Maya’s mom said.

But they aren’t finished yet.

“Her end goal is, there's not really an end goal. She wants to continue this throughout all the schools in our district. And her next goal will be East Elementary,” Heather said.

Maya's elementary school is now working to add more water dispensers for the students to easily fill up their new water bottles.

“I am incredibly proud of her. To me she's kind of reserved and a little shy sometimes. But when she's passionate about something, she's very vociferous about it,” Heather said.

To donate to help provide water bottles to students in Weatherford, you can visit the GoFundMe page here.