October 01, 2011|By Don Markus, The Baltimore Sun
Morrell said that "basically just means, 'Put it back the way it was.' We have all these things that are artificial control items. If we return so that the pollution is filtered out by sand, by rocks, by trees before it reaches the water, as it was intended to be, that actually provides a natural balance that stops the pollution from draining directly into the water."
En route to the Florida Everglades, Horn's group will be in the Baltimore area for four days beginning Thursday for programs at the National Aquarium, the Severn School and the Annapolis Yacht Club. Part of the Saturday program at the Aquarium is open to the public.
Along with starting the Adventurers Club at school, Morrell also helped recruit one of her classmates, Anne McGarvey, to become a Young Explorer. McGarvey, a sophomore from Davidsonville, is currently at Horn's selection camp in Switzerland.
"The selection camp was the most thrilling and the most important 10 days of my entire life," Morrell said. "The last two days is called the Pangaea Raid, and it's 28 hours. You don't go to sleep because the other team can get ahead. It's in the Swiss Alps. They give you a series of a coordinates and a compass and you have to find your way. It's just intense and your adrenaline is pumping. It tests to show your true character when you become completely exhausted, teamwork and cooperation, as well as endurance."
Morrell's passion is often lost on her friends who can identify more with those chosen to be on "American Idol."
"It's not easy to relay, especially when it comes to the friends all over the world thing," Morrell said. "When my friends [in the Young Explorer program] tell me a joke about how things relate in Singapore, I can't really express that. I just have a different sense of the world. Who wants to climb into a crevice and hike their way back up? I do, but most people don't. It's difficult to share that sometimes."
Morrell can now relate to what her father, Craig, was telling her all those years ago.
Last summer, Morrell said a cut on her hand prevented her from going into the Severn River to join her sisters for water-skiing, tubing and swimming.
"I had to sit on the boat because I had an open cut, and I said, 'This stinks,'" she recalled. "I remember when I could swim with a cut and today I can't. I have gained appreciation for that and I realize that it's time to give back. Somebody has to do that."
Craig Morrell, a partner in a commercial development company, knows this is only the start for the oldest of his three daughters.
"She's unstoppable at this point," he said.
don.markus@baltsun.com
