Boy launches Kids Speak for Parks campaign

Robbie Bond said he felt “really sad” when he heard that 27 national monuments might lose federal support, including Hawaii’s Papahanau­­mokuakea Marine National Monument.

So the nine-year-old decided to do something — launching Kids Speak for Parks and the website kidsspeakforparks.com as a way for children to speak up and share their experiences at parks and monuments in jeopardy of funding cuts.

As a fourth-grader, Bond had the opportunity to tour national parks and monuments with his family using an Every Kid in a Park pass under a program offered last school year.

He’s hoping the website will help show support for Hawaii’s marine monument and other national treasures like Giant Sequoia National Monument — the home of giant sequoia trees, a place he has visited and wants others to experience.

Bond was impressed by Sequoia’s trees, some hundreds of years old and as large as buildings. “To see the birds and chipmunks and feel the bark on the trees is really different,” he said.

Kids Speak for Parks is his way of encouraging kids — particularly fourth-graders — to show support for national parks in jeopardy as the result of President Donald Trump’s announcement that he wanted to review their status.

“We must build an army of fourth-graders and their families to stand up and speak for the parks,” he said in a press release on the launch of the website. “Our government needs to hear from us, the youngest amongst us, that our national parks and monuments are not for sale.”

Bond’s parents, Robin and Michelle, moved to the East Coast from Oahu in 2012 to enable their son to attend schools for gifted children. He’s been taking courses at the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth and the Center for Gifted Education at the College of William &Mary. He spends his summers in Hawaii.

One of Bond’s supporters is Polynesian Voyaging Society President Nainoa Thompson, whom he contacted last week for support in launching the website.

“He just asked to get together to have a conversation,” said Thompson, who said the website is the start of a good idea.

“To have children have a way to say what they feel is terribly important,” said Thompson, whose legendary PVS sailing canoe, the Hokule‘a, recently completed an around-the-world educational voyage.

“He’s a brilliant boy, a genius. He’s giving children a voice. He’s helping to pave the way for that,” Thompson said. “It’s quite an honor to have a talk with him.”

Michelle Bond said her son looks up to Thompson as a role model. “He followed the Hokule‘a on its voyage,” she said. “We met the crew on the East Coast.”

Robin Bond, a commercial diver, said family and friends have contributed funds toward promoting the website. He said his son wants to visit all 27 of the national monuments under review by the president and share his experiences visiting them.

“It’s really become an important process for my son and ourselves,’’ he said.