Northridge 5th-Grader Heading to Earth Summit

Northridge fifth-grader Maren Steiner said she started worrying about the environment the day she picked up a needle in Santa Monica while participating in a volunteer beach cleanup.

She started out small--forming her own conservation club with neighborhood children and combing the ground for cans to recycle. But her efforts quickly yielded bigger things.

This month, Maren, 10, hopes to share her concerns with the likes of Vice President Al Gore. As California’s representative to a Kids’ Earth Fund National Summit, sponsored by Nickelodeon cable television, Maren will travel to Orlando, Fla., April 16 through 18 to meet with Gore and 55 other children from the U.S. and Europe. The purpose of the summit is to develop local conservation projects for children.

Maren, a student at Beckford Avenue Elementary School, won the trip on the merits of an essay she submitted to the national nonprofit Kids’ Earth Fund, said her mother, Denice Steiner, and school officials.

Maren said her essay dealt with the beach cleanup and outlined ideas for conserving the environment.

Asked why conservation is important to her, Maren had a quick reply: “I don’t want to go stepping on needles when I go to the beach.”