FAIRHOPE, Alabama—In 2010, when the Deepwater Horizon oil spill was impacting the lives of Gulf Coast fisherman, restaurant owners, tourists and nature lovers, the whole world was listening and became familiar with their stories.  But did they ever ask the children and young people of the Gulf Coast how it affected them? What was their story?

Katie Gavenus, project director of Children of the Spills is making a concerted effort to find out.  

Growing up in a coastal Alaskan town affected by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, Gavenus now leads a nonprofit project she developed to gather and share the stories of young people affected by oil spills through writing, drawing, or videos.

“By empowering young people in ‘oiled communities’ to share their memories, stories, and childhood artwork, this project strives to both broaden the public understanding of the long-term effects of oil spills and to assist communities as they work to protect and support their children after an oil spill,” the project’s website states.

On March 22, Gavenus visited Susan Gould’s class of middle-school students at the Marietta Johnson School of Organic Education and told them all about her own experiences in Alaska.  

The students then got to work as a team and produced a video interview session for their project.  

Each had a story, weather it be memories of cancelling a beach vacation, being told to not eat the seafood, watching someone they knew suffer financially, or even seeing a relative get sick, they had plenty to say.  Their biggest concerns were where all the oil went and if it’s really gone, and should they trust what they are being told.

Gavenus was just 2 years old when the more than 11 million gallons of toxic black sludge spilled, covering the coastline of Prince William Sound and killing hundreds of thousands of animals, she said.

The economic impact to her hometown was crippling, the physical and mental toll, devastating. The effects are still being felt 23 years later.

“I didn’t really understand what was going on at that age. I just knew something was wrong and wanted to help somehow,” Gavenus said.  When she saw the sea otters she loved so much dying of hypothermia because the oil was destroying their ability to regulate body heat, she took action. 

“I actually donated my ‘blankie’ to the sea otters so they could stay warm,” she said.  “I knew that one memory really stuck with me, and I wanted to talk to others and hear their stories, too. I wanted to help them heal.”

While working to launch her project in Alaska, she heard the news of the BP oil spill in the Gulf.

“I knew right away how important this project was going to be,” she said. 

After compiling the memories of those who were children during the Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska, she is now traveling to the effected areas of the Gulf Coast to work with children in schools and youth groups there.

Perhaps student Grace King, 11, said it best when asked why the oil spill mattered to her: “This is where I was born, and I don’t want to be anywhere else.”

To learn more about Katie Gavenus’ project, visit www.childrenofthespills.org.