Charlotte and Anastasia were awarded the BC Medal of Good Citizenship on Jan 20th 2020 for their work on reducing the use of single use plastics in BC. They are the only teenagers so far to have received this award.
Charlotte Brady and Anastasia Castro
Charlotte Brady and Anastasia Castro have been involved with environmental issues since they were in middle school.
In 2012, the two students joined Fin Free Victoria, an organization focused on educating the public about the plight of world shark populations and the need to regulate the sale of shark fin in Canada.
Brady and Castro have spent many hours collecting signatures and engaging and educating the public on declining shark populations worldwide. Their efforts led to an increased awareness of the issue, including by local restaurant owners, and shark fin is no longer sold in the Victoria area.
In the process, Brady and Castro realized the importance of working with federal politicians to achieve their goals. They had an opportunity to do so during the tabling of the Federal Bill to ban the sale of shark fin in Canada. In June 2019, Canada became the first G20 country in the world to ban the import and export of shark fins.
Along the way, Brady and Castro have taken every opportunity to educate and inspire younger students by giving presentations at schools.
During their Grade 8 year they became aware of and concerned about the issue of ocean plastics. They discussed the issue with their teacher and decided to mount a campaign to ban the use of plastic bags in Victoria.
In 2017 Castro won a Canada-wide Science Fair prize for her project on the Fluctuation of Oceanic Microplastics at Depth and Effects on Marine Ecosystems.
Their efforts to ban plastic bags included making presentations to councils in the Capital Regional District area, speaking at local schools to educate and inspire other students, participating in beach clean-ups, and creating a plan to ban the use of plastic bags in the Victoria area.
Brady and Castro spent a year working with the City of Victoria council to implement their plan and worked to educate the public at local markets, petition signing events and school presentations. The City of Victoria ultimately banned the use of plastic bags in December 2017, and other Capital Regional District municipalities are following.
Brady and Castro are currently developing a program to make all schools in B.C. free of single use plastics.
Throughout the past five years, Brady and Castro have worked and continue to work diligently on their campaigns.