‘Service driven’: North Texas teen saving the environment one park at a time
A dirty creek at a North Texas park started a middle school student on the path to environmental advocacy.
“I noticed there was a lot of plastic in the creek,” said Daniel Thomas, now a 17-year-old senior at Colleyville Heritage High School.
Thomas, who was 11 at the time, went home and started to research why trash ends up in waterways. He learned most of it comes from the land. The teen told the Star-Telegram he realized what a difference it would make if litter could be properly disposed of before it ended up in the water.
Thomas began his environmental efforts by emailing Ray McDonald, at that time the director of parks and recreation in Euless. McDonald said the student’s proposal for a cleanup at 47-acre Bob Eden Park read like a master’s thesis.
“He had a well-thought-out plan of how he wanted to execute that,” McDonald said.
Groups frequently volunteered for cleanups and other park projects, McDonald said, but Thomas surprised him. For one thing, the student didn’t ask for any supplies or equipment from the city. And when McDonald went by Bob Eden Park later, he saw Thomas and his group of volunteers had bagged all the trash and hauled it away themselves instead of leaving it for the Parks Department to deal with.
Since that time, Thomas has conducted monthly litter cleanups in multiple North Texas parks. He’s removed 45,000 pounds of plastic and other trash from local waterways and cleaned over 730 miles of roads. The city of Euless named him Volunteer Youth of the Year in 2022.
“This guy’s special,” McDonald said. “He’s not just doing it to check a box.”
In September, Thomas received the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes for his environmental work. The teen was one of 25 students chosen for the honor out of 700 applicants.
Thomas continues to look for creative ways to combat environmental problems. An app he designed for mobile phones — Litter Scout — allows users to report the location of trash and then check off when an area has been cleaned. His YouTube channel of the same name has nearly 9,000 subscribers. The teen has also published four children’s books on conservation.
“He never fails to amaze me with what he’s doing,” said Tegan Brennen, Thomas’ Scoutmaster.
Thomas joined Boy Scout Troop 1905 in Colleyville when he was 11. At age 12 he earned Eagle Scout, the highest rank available. Thomas said he was inspired by Ross Perot, who achieved that rank at 13.
The teen’s father, Alex Thomas, credits the program for teaching his son organizational skills and discipline.
“That initiative of his, I think scouting just helped fuel it,” Alex Thomas said.
Brennen said he jokingly calls Daniel Thomas a “friend to the bees.” In 2023, the teen, with help from some of his fellow Scouts, built and installed over 50 bee houses for Keep Grapevine Beautiful Pollinator Week.
“He was just very focused,” Brennen said. “I mean, he still has fun, but he was very, very focused.”
In 2022, Thomas was a finalist in the 3M Young Scientist Challenge. He got the idea for his entry — a dosing pump to prevent clogs and bacterial overgrowth in air conditioner condensate lines — from watching his father and HVAC technicians repair the clogged line at his house. The pump’s components only cost $33 in contrast to the hundreds of dollars condensate line repairs can cost.
Community service is another theme in Thomas’ life. In 2019, he started an annual pie drive to thank first responders. He served as Colleyville’s “Mayor for a Day” that year and got to see how much work police officers and firefighters do to keep the community safe. Every Thanksgiving, Thomas and a group of friends deliver 4-pound pies and thank you notes to more than 40 police and fire stations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
“He seems to be service driven,” Alex Thomas said.
Alex Thomas said from an early age his son has seen family members volunteer their time in various community projects, and he’s just taken that to another level.
Daniel Thomas is already looking into university options for next year. He told the Star-Telegram that he’s still trying to decide where to attend, but he knows he wants to study environmental science.
“I’m really excited about that,” he said.
Thomas said he finds fulfillment in educating other young people about the importance of environmental stewardship. He gives presentations at local elementary school garden clubs and loves sharing what he’s learned with others.
On one cleanup, Thomas and an elementary student found a banana peel on the ground. Thomas asked the boy how long it would take the peel to decompose. The boy guessed it would only take a short time, but Thomas explained it could take several years. Later that day, Thomas saw the student excitedly sharing what he’d learned.
“When you educate youth, you really see the impact,” Thomas said.
