I’m on a mission to de-clutter my house. The past two weekends, I’ve been putting away my “whale stuff”. What does that mean? My books, trinkets, and items that I’ve been collecting for over 40 years. Two years ago, I made a Guinness World Record attempt for having the largest collection of whale related items. Since I was a child, I have been collecting whale figurines, jewelry, ornaments, clothes, and had built up quite a large collection. No one had a record for whale stuff, so I figured I’d try it. On May 24, 2019, I set up all my “whale items” in my son’s gym.
It was astonishing to see it all together. I had never put it all in one place before. It sort of felt like a flea market, but it was all whale stuff, and it was all mine!!! (There was definitely some embarrassment.) I had two people count it that night (a total of 1347 items) and then we had to bring it all home. What to do with it now? Well, I took the dishes out of the china cabinet and replaced them with lots of whales so I could enjoy them for a while. The rest went in the attic. It was a ton of work on my part, but, three months later I received my certificate in the mail.
Fast forward two years, and the china needed to go back in the cabinet (so I could clean up the area where the china had been stored), so the whales went to the attic (for now). As I was doing it, I found a use for all the plastic bags that I collected from the grocery store last spring (when during the first part of Covid, they wouldn’t let us use our own bags.)
When I think about how long I’ve been collecting and how long I have loved whales, it inspires me to want to foster that in children today. When I was younger, I was obsessed with whales–but not necessarily the environment in which they lived. That came a little later in my life. Today, there is so much more awareness about our planet, if we can hook kids early and get them to care about our planet, they will grow to be advocates much sooner in their lives than I did in my life. That inspires me to talk to as many kids as I can and share my story.
At The Whalemobile, we believe people protect what they understand—so we bring ocean science to life through stories, hands-on learning, and by bringing a life-sized whale in schools and libraries. To learn more about our programs, visit our website at www.thewhalemobile.com.