Lukacs Sarko was in the middle of doing some schoolwork when something unexpected caught his eye. “I looked out the window, and I just saw a bunch of squirrels,” the 10-year-old says. While Lukacs likes playing baseball and hockey, he didn’t know what he liked about squirrels, so he started doing some research. “(Squirrels) are pretty cool,” Lukacs says. One of the cooler facts he found was that squirrels can live between multiple homes. “They’re kind of like movers and shakers,” Lukacs smiles. “They bounce around a bunch.” But the coolest thing of all was what he found out about flying squirrels. “They actually don’t fly. They just glide,” Lukacs raises his arms out to show how it works. “Kinda like a spy movie!” And then—kind of like James Bond doing surveillance—Lukacs noticed how some people walking past the window looked like they need a licence to thrill. “They seemed a bit kind of sleepy,” Lukacs says. So, like 007 might have a fountain pen that turns into a rocket launcher, Lukacs used chopsticks and scotch tape to make informative signs about squirrels that would blow people’s minds. “So, they have information to share with their friends and stuff,” Lukacs shows how he used the chopsticks attached to the signs to stick them up. And after placing a series of signs along a rock wall beside the sidewalk—calling them party conversation starters for squirrel people—Lukacs is realizing it’s not a “Mission: Impossible” to wake people up to the wonder of the natural world. “It feels great,” a woman walking by the signs smiles. “I didn’t know flying squirrels glide up to 450 meters!” “I’m going to want to share this,” her friend adds. “There are going to be more people by the end of the day that know these facts.” The squirrel signs are proving so popular with people passing by, Lukacs is in the midst of researching for upcoming series on marmots and lizards. While the boy is teaching adults about animals, the positive feedback is teaching Lukacs a lasting lesson in doing something nice for others. “When they have a smile on their face, it makes me have a smile on my face,” Lukacs smiles. “It’s kind of like a win-win!”
