As some of you may know, Friendly Drifter has been creating a children’s book to educate young minds on the harmful effects plastic waste has on the environment. Education plays major role in creating a sustainable waste management system for Raja Ampat. The initial idea for creating such a book came to me when I received an email from Peter during my Ocean Rescue Run. It turns out Peter owns Borsi, a plastic molding business in Germany that produces automobile parts. He knows the importance of doing what we can to protect the environment. Peter has helped other similar projects in the past through his organization, Industry Responsibility. Peter offered a donation and asked what it could be used for. I’ve always had it in mind to include educational material, so I thought this was a great opportunity. The premise was created. Then I was on the lookout for people as passionate as me about the area, and the environment.

I had been communicating with Cath (seayogi) on Instagram. She was living in Raja Ampat and we shared the same concerns. She witnessed all the plastics bits washing up on the remote shores where she was living. When it came time to find a writer, I knew she was the one. She wrote an amazing blog post on why writing this book was important to her. Please check it out – www.seayogi.com

Next on the list was to find an illustrator, someone who could bring Cath’s story to life. I had been following Jasmine on Instagram who just so happened to be newly married to Tertius, the manager of Kayak 4 Conservation. You may remember a blog post about this company on my first trip. I knew she was an artist but hadn’t thought much about it until she did some cartoon drawings of a shark called Stanley. Stanley was used to help protect sharks in the area, and teach kids how important sharks are to the ecosystem. As soon as I saw the artwork, I knew I had to ask; she would be perfect. She enthusiastically agreed to help. Now the Ocean Warriors Team was set. Jasmine has done a couple of blog posts talking about her creations, check them out here: Jasmine Kammeyer

Together we collaborated to create the first draft of the book on a deadline of April 1^st. Peter will be in Bologna, Italy for the world’s largest children’s book fair. Our goal is to introduce our book to the community and meet publishers, printers, editors and distributors. If any of our readers know any of the above, please contact me. The more help we get, the more books we can hand out to the kids of Raja Ampat. All proceeds of this book will help create further editions and other educational materials. This book was purely made with our hearts, and driven by our passions.

We still have a few corrections to make until our final version will be ready to purchase. Our target month is July of 2017. If you would like to pre-order, please contact me so I can include you in the first print run. Keep in mind ALL proceeds from this book go directly towards other educational materials for the kids of Raja Ampat.

I am excited to see what Bologna brings! Let’s sell some books!!

Order Your Copy Here!