Teenager Helping Arctic Refuge
“I have so many things and really don’t need more,” says Hannah Luisa Cohen-Fuentes. So this 13-year-old Washingtonian suggested that those invited to her June 10 Bat Mitzvah at Tifereth Israel synagogue contribute to The Wilderness Society instead of giving her a present. “This ceremony is supposed to signify passage from childhood, and part of growing up is to start thinking about the larger world instead of just yourself,” she explains.
Her main environmental concern is the proposal to drill for oil in the biological heart of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which she learned about from her parents, Thomas Cohen and Lisa Fuentes. “I did some research, and thought it would be a terrible mistake to destroy the refuge forever to get oil that adds up to a six-month supply,” Hannah says. She wrote to the Interior Secretary to share these thoughts and applied her knowledge to conservation campaigns undertaken by her seventh-grade class.
“I think it’s really important to get involved in things you care about,” says Hannah, whose energy comes across in conversation. “A lot of my friends aren’t sure how to do that, so I’m hoping that some of them will adopt my idea.”
Close friend Rebecca Lesher thinks that it makes great sense. “The thing that I liked most when Hannah planned her Bat Mitzvah was that she incorporated the environmental issues that we've talked about at school and tried to do something to help,” she says.
“Seeing a 13-year-old do something like this is such a hopeful sign for those of us in older generations,” says Wilderness Society President William H. Meadows. “I am so impressed by her commitment; she may prove to be one of our future environmental leaders.” He plans to meet with Hannah this summer and give her a tour of our Ansel Adams collection.
