My name is Jack Dalton, I am the Youth Ambassador for Orang Utan Republik Foundation, and for the last six years I have worked on my project, Kid Conservationist. For my work as the Kid Conservationist, I have receivedseveral awards including being named a Top 20 Kid of the Year by TIME and Nickelodeon, a President’s Environmental Youth Award Winner, the Zoo New England Young Conservationist of the Year, been honored by the General Consul of Indonesia in Los Angeles, the Mayor of my hometown, and I have been on television shows such as New Hampshire Chronicle, Windows to the Wild, and the Jennifer Hudson Show, among other features in magazines, and online articles. These recognitions are a tremendous honor for me as a person, and even more importantly, hold significant possibilities to elevate my Kid Conservationist project.
Image 1 - Jennifer Hudson Show: Jack on the Jennifer Hudson Show on Earth Day, speaking about orangutans.
In 2022, I was named the Zoo New England Young Conservationist Award Winner. This recognition was particularly memorable because I began my conservation work when I learned about orangutans and their endangered status at a zoo. The night I was presented the award was the night of Zoo New England’s ‘Zootopia’ event, where various fundraisers, auctions, and only two awards occur. I was lucky enough to give a speech that night to bring the status of orangutans to the event and all of its attendees. These attendees included John Linehan, President of Zoo New England, and Caitlin Andujar, a member of the Zoo New England team, who has provided me with several experiences at the zoo, including helping to track and monitor the endangered blanding turtles here in New England. Over the last few years, I have worked with the zoo to find and connect with other local youth conservationists. The funds I received from the award went towards my 2022 trip to Indonesia, where I planted trees, visited a school and saw wild orangutans for the first time. All together, this award served not just as a platform for local education, but also a connection point to zoo staff, youth, and fellow conservationists within the region, and the funds had an even broader global impact.
Image 2 - Zootopia: Jack at Zootopia, Zoo New England's annual fundraising gala, with John Linehan, Zoo New England President
Beyond the local New England impact of Kid Conservationist, I continue to want to improve and scale my project nationally to make a lasting and meaningful impact to kids across the US. To do this I need three really important things- skills, funding, and support. In 2024, I was named a winner of the ‘Build a Brighter Future Grant’, which included $5,000 towards Kid Conservationist initiatives, as well as training and check-ins through the ‘Whatever It Takes’ (WIT) program to build skills necessary for fundraising, connecting, and educating. Winning this award not only strengthened these skills, but also provided funding towards more copies of my children’s book, Kawan the Orangutan, Lost in the Rainforest, which plants trees and gets kids to care about orangutans from a young age. This award had a direct contribution to education, on top of extending my support network through the WIT program, allowing me to learn from like-minded youth.
Image 3 - GCPA: Jack with his Global Child Prodigy Award trophy outside British Parliament, where the award ceremony took place.
Orangutans live only in Indonesia and Malaysia, but they are critical to their rainforest ecosystem, and therefore the world. Similarly, to make an important contribution to orangutan conservation, we must think and connect on a global scale. Just this summer, I was recognized as a ‘Top 100 Global Child Prodigy’, and along with the other winners, I was invited to the award ceremony in the British Parliament. This was an opportunity to connect with other youth with global platforms. Some kids such as myself were recognized for their conservation efforts, while others were artistic prodigies, social media influencers, or even magicians! My personal favorite fellow prodigy I met at the award ceremony was ‘Astroboy David’ - a fellow young author with a passion for the cosmos. It was refreshing to see a young person with similar interests, and after exchanging books, we have also shared our passions with our own individual communities. Along with the other award winners, we are working to potentially set up a global charity event. The Global Child Prodigy Awards go to show how much of a difference young people make when given the opportunity to do so with one another.
The huge support that people and organizations have shown for my work over the years is what keeps me going. It shows me that I, a fifteen-year-old from New Hampshire, am making a difference for the rainforest, orangutans, and our world and allows me to build a more reputable platform to speak from. These awards provide the resources I need to spread the word of orangutans and our world to people who can help. Most importantly, these awards connect me to people who I am inspired by, and can inspire, to continue the work we all do to help make the world a better place.