An offer I couldn’t refuse
My children can be left alone in the car on mild days and will always be ridiculously happy to see me every single time we are reunited, even if I was only gone for five minutes. But with a vocabulary limited to “woof,” they’re a little dull in the conversation department.
So, I often find myself living vicariously through the human offspring of others, especially during that golden age when they are old enough to be interested in the world, but not old enough to have entered the “eye roll” stage.
Ryder and Cooper Kraucunas are some of the coolest little dudes I’ve ever met; already having values at ages five and eight that some fully grown adults will never muster.
After the family, which includes older brother Finley, recently relocated from Washington, Ryder and Cooper quickly began finding ways to be good citizens of Lincoln City, where they live very close to one of the city’s Open Spaces.
“We just kept finding trash and dog poo poo in the forest,” Cooper said. “So I told my brother, ‘We really should do something about this.”
Ryder was fully on board, and the Clean Forest Club was born. The boys hand-drew contracts for people to sign, promising to be good stewards of the environment by picking up trash when they were out walking the local trails. After bringing the contract around to close neighbors, they began to plan an organized neighborhood cleanup.
“We made a time and people really came,” Cooper said. “We picked up seven bags of trash the first time.”
One of the neighbors who signed up for the event works for the Lincoln City Parks and Recreation Department and connected the boys with Director Jeanne Sprague. This led to sponsored events for the club, including one that took place on Halloween, Trash for Treats.
“These boys are amazing,” Sprague said. “We are absolutely thrilled to support what they are doing."
I met the boys at the Halloween event, where Parks and Rec staff came with recycled bags to put trash in, and goody bags for participants. Costumes were not mandatory, but all participants came in them anyway, including an entire family of praying mantises.
“It went good but there was way less trash than we were expecting in the forest, which is a good thing,” Cooper said. “But there sure was a lot in the parking lot. My dad even found a big metal tank in the bushes.”
Dad, Ian Kraucunas, is a climate scientist and mom, Katie Oberhofer, is a speech pathologist.
“We would love to take credit for how the boys turned out,” Oberhofer said. “But they just keep surprising us.”
The boys already have plans to expand the franchise.
“We’re going to keep the Clean Forest Club going for a while longer,” Cooper said. “Then we want to add a clean beach club, too.”
Other than cleaning up the environment, the boys’ hobbies include art, bike riding and gardening; Ryder even helps with a neighbor’s garden.
The family had been coming to their coastal house for years before a decision to move here permanently was hastened by COVID-19. As a result, they know their neighbors fairly well — well enough they felt safe when the boys would go visit them on their own.
“We should clarify that we didn’t know they were doing this when it first started,” Oberhofer said. “They were going door to door with the contracts then one day one of the neighbors said to us, ‘We signed the contract!’ And we were like; ‘Contract?’”
I asked the boys why, instead of the many things kids do these days to pass the time, they decided to start a club where they were essentially cleaning up after people who go to the same places they do, but treat them so differently.
“We care if there is trash in the forest because we like animals and it’s not good for them,” Ryder said, also describing something about making houses for slugs, I think. (Talking to a five-year-old isn’t always a smooth ride) “Sometimes we see deer and we really like them and we just want them to be safe.”
To join the club, contact Katie Oberhofer via Facebook or Instagram, or follow Lincoln City Parks and Recreation on Facebook to see upcoming club cleanup events.