Bend native Mimi Ausland, who, with her dad, started the site freekibble.com when she was a kid, has a new venture into the world of doing good things — this time saving our oceans from destructive plastic pollution.
Her site, freetheocean.com, provides an entertaining platform for making an impact. Basically, one click equals one piece of plastic removed. Anyone can go to the site, answer the daily trivia question and help clean up the ocean and coastline. For every question answered correctly, one piece of plastic is removed. According to Ausland, "Since our launch, last August, FTO's community has funded the removal of over 2.5 million pieces of plastic!"
FTO has people playing from all 50 states and over 140 countries. Kids can share their location by visiting the Community page on the website. They can also "Track Your Stats" by creating an account — this shows the number of days played in a row, the percent of correct answers, and the number of plastic pieces they've personally helped remove. Kids move up in levels as they play more.
And, it's free to play. Ausland explained, "This is made possible by our advertisers on the site, who fund our cause partner, Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii. The funding goes directly to removing plastic."
