CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Many kids are spending the weekend hunting eggs or taking pictures with the Easter Bunny, but 8-year-old Jaxon Hancock spent today picking up trash at Cole Park. He picks up trash at a park or along the beach about once a month and said he’s been doing it since the age of three.
He doesn’t mind getting deep into the crevices of rocks to find trash in places most people don’t look, throwing it into a trash bag and then into a nearby trash can.
“So the community is clean,” he said when asked why he spends his time doing what most try to avoid.
He said he wants to help creatures around the ocean and parks.
“So other animals don’t die,” Hancock said.
He also recycles papers and plastics like water bottles and utensils along the way. Motivating his friends and family to do the same is also part of the process.
“It’s made me realize that I’m not the only thing on earth…that there are other organisms that need a place to live and they won’t have it if it’s all filled with trash and gross things that shouldn’t be there,” Lily Stuart, Jackson’s god sister said.
Recently the Surfrider Foundation heard about Jaxon’s work and awarded him April’s 'Our Cleanup Hero of the Month' as a part of their Skip the Plastic project.
“We were thinking…how many eight-year-old kids go out on their own and are highly motivated to pick up trash everywhere. So he just seemed like a shining example to kids and adults,” Neil McQueen, the Surfrider Foundation’s Vice Chair said.
Jaxon’s dream profession, of all things,is a trash man because he said they do a great job of keeping the community clean.
Jaxon’s mom said next Saturday he’ll be able to live out his dream by riding along with the Corpus Christi Solid Waste Disposal in their trash vehicle and touring a land fill.
