12-Year-Old Sets Sights on a Clean Sweep

Emma Stone is throwing a beach cleanup the day after Independence Day, and if only a few people show up, the 12-year-old said she will be satisfied.

“I know for sure 10 people are coming and that’s fine,” she said. “One person can make a difference.”

Certainly one of the county’s most organized youngsters, the Orange County native said she’s always been bothered by trash along the beaches. She worries about the creatures that live in and near the water where she swims.

This week she asked others in the community if they’re bothered by the same thing.

“Have you ever gone to the beach?” Stone asked in 150 fliers she created and posted around the city. “Have you seen the sea gulls? Have you seen the trash? That trash kills the wildlife.”

Her flier also announced the beach cleanup, starting at 12:30 p.m. Sunday on Sunset Beach at Pacific Coast Highway and Warner Avenue. Those who help will be rewarded with pizza, supplied by local sponsors Emma organized, and Gatorade, supplied by her mother, Wendy Stone.

Although a resident of Huntington Beach, where she attends Mesa View Middle School, Emma discovered how much trash gets thrown on Sunset Beach when she joined the California Junior Lifeguard program.

She and the others, who help out the lifeguards and train on the beach and in the water, regularly pick up trash, she said.

She mentioned the idea of a cleanup to her instructors and they told her to go for it.

“She organized the whole thing herself,” Wendy Stone said. “It’s fabulous that they allowed a 12-year-old to do this.”