"Many trucks pass through here so it becomes very polluted," says 12-year-old Coby whose school, Philippine Normal University’s Center for Teaching and Learning, is right along Ayala Boulevard.

Ten-year-old Agnes and 9-year-old Angelie go to the same school too. One day, the three of them decided to finally do something about their smog-hogged environment.

Says Coby, "We decided to plant trees to help prevent the pollution."

"Their father went to Cavite to purchase the seedlings but the money used for buying the seedlings came from their savings," their mom, Marisa Sarreal, informs us proudly.

A total of 250 Indian trees were planted on both sides of Ayala Boulevard on Dec. 8, a date the kids chose because it was the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Coby, Agnes and Angelie were joined by their classmates and advisers at PNU-CTL as well as their three big brothers, Roberto "Pango" Pancratius, 16, John Raymond, 14 and Joseph Gideon, 13, who all study at San Beda.

We wondered, though, how did they manage to save up enough to buy all those trees? "Sometimes we would win in competitions," explains Angelie, "and we would put the (cash) prizes in our savings."

You see, all the Sarreal kids play a musical instrument. Angelie and Pango play the clarinet while Agnes and Gideon go a-root-toot-tootin’ on a trumpet. Coby makes music with a soprano sax and Raymond, with his flute, delights audiences to the max. Now, these kids play so well, they’ve won a number of big performing competitions including the National Music Competition for Young Artists (Namcya) where Pango, Raymond and Gideon won top prizes in 1998. Every time they win, they always use a little of their prizes in projects that help out other people.

"We always encourage them to give part of their winnings to other children who do not have as much as they do," says their mom, "it’s also a way of being grateful. . .of giving back to God the graces He has given them."

Their different projects made all six siblings finalists in the search for Millennium Dreamers last summer and some of you might remember reading about how Raymond, Gideon and Coby were eventually chosen to join the other Millennium Dreamers in Florida (JI, April 29, 2000). Even now these kids are thinking of more ideas to help those around them. Coby, for instance, wants to return to Mt. Pinatubo. "I saw the people there were very poor and they still need rice and canned goods," he tells us. He’s hoping one of his performances will be able to raise enough funds for a big donation.

"I will continue teaching my friend because her family still can’t send her to school," says Agnes who started teaching her 12-year-old neighbor how to read and count for the first time.

Angelie, for her part, says, "I will work hard in playing my clarinet so when I go to the province, I can play in a school and when (the students) get excited (about my playing), I will tell them that dreams come true when you just do your best."