Courtesy photo Patrons at Zoo Boise in Idaho gather around for Nashua resident Jack Dalton's presentation on the plight of Orangutan apes on World Orangutan Day 2019.

After all, what’s more fun for just about every 10-year-old than a day at the zoo, checking out animals and other creatures from around the world, learning new things about them, resisting the urge to stick a hand through the fence to pet a cute, furry, seemingly docile critter, delighting in the hourly demonstrations and maybe stopping by the souvenir stand on the way out?

But one 10-year-old, a kid from Nashua named Jack Dalton, took his series of zoo visits a step further – actually, many steps further – and is now deeply involved in a sweeping campaign of his own making aimed at preserving the environment in general, but more specifically, keeping intact the tropical rainforests vital to the well-being and survival of Orangutan apes.

Dalton’s crusade on behalf of Orangutans began the day about a year and a half ago when he and his family, during one of their almost-daily visits to the Memphis Zoo, noticed something going on in the Orangutan area.

“They were having a birthday party for a baby Orangutan,” Jack said, referring to the zookeepers. He watched for awhile, asked a couple of questions, and the rest is history.

Courtesy photo An example of the "fun videos" Jack Dalton creates and posts on social media to educate people about Orangutan apes.

“I really want to help them,” he said, recalling that day.

Soon, Jack’s mission gained national attention, and ultimately the folks at Nickelodeon, TIME and TIME for Kids reached out to him to hear more.

The result was his nomination for a Nickelodeon-TIME Kid of the Year Award, described as “a multi-platform initiative recognizing extraordinary young leaders who are making a positive impact on their communities.”

Jack is one of 20 finalists, whittled down from a field of more than 5,000 nominees. Judges are in the process of choosing the top five honorees from the 20 finalists, who will be introduced on a TV special to air at 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 5.

The naming of the “Ultimate Kid of the Year” will come later in the program.

Courtesy photo Jack Dalton met and interviewed award-winning wildlife film producer Geoff Spanner at last year's Wildlife Conservation Film Festival in New York.

The special will be simulcast on CBS, Nickelodeon, TeenNick and Nicktoons, according to the networks.

Several celebrity guests, including Kristen Bell, Simone Biles, Brie Larson, Zachary Levi and Russell Westbrook, are scheduled to appear on the show, which will be hosted by Trevor Noah, star of The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.

Meanwhile, the Daltons’ opportunity to visit so many places – zoos included, of course – is a sort of fringe benefit of Timothy Dalton’s profession: He’s a traveling cardiac catheterization nurse, higher in demand over the past several months than ever.

The family goes where Timothy Dalton is assigned, stay as long as he’s needed, then move on to his next assignment.

That Jack’s mother, Heather, happens to be a teacher works out quite well; rather than deal with the remote-learning versus in-person conundrum, she home-schools her son.

Courtesy photo Jack Dalton set up a booth at a Nashua Farmers Market earlier this year to sell products that raise funds for the Orangutan Alliance.

Jack Dalton, a talkative kid with bright, red hair, is the antithesis of the typically shy kids his age, appearing as comfortable chatting with a visitor on the finer points of environment-protection and Orangutan advocacy as many of his peers would be talking sports or playing video games.

As it turns out, central to Jack’s mission on behalf of Orangutans is finding ways to reduce, and perhaps some day eradicate, the use of palm oil, a substance commonly used in the processing of a wide variety of foods, from bread and cereal to peanut butter and chocolate and in products such as cosmetics, shampoo and cleaning products.

It’s not so much the palm oil itself that concerns environmentalists and wildlife advocates like Jack, but the fact that the trees from which it is derived grow best within 10 degrees of the equator – the same region where the world’s most biodiverse rainforests are home to Orangutans and other endangered species, including the pygmy elephant and Sumatran rhino.

“They have to take down the rainforests to grow palm oil plantations,” Jack said, adding that the practice is likely to have an increasingly detrimental effect on the Orangutan population if it goes on unabated.

Among Jack’s initiatives was reaching out to food giants Hershey, General Mills and Nestle, furnishing them with facts and figures on the potential environmental impact of their continued use of palm oil in their products.

Courtesy photo A slide from Jack Dalton's interview with National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore on Jack's YouTube channel, "Kid Conservationist."

In the midst of his travels, Jack has interviewed such journalistic luminaries as award-winning wildlife producer Geoff Spanner, National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore, and Dr. Birute Mary Galdikas, a prolific scientist, conservationist, educator and the world’s foremost authority on the orangutan, who for decades lived among them in their native Borneo.

Jack’s plans as of earlier this year included a journey to Borneo to get a first-hand look at the conservation work going on, thanks to activists like himself on behalf of the Orangutan Alliance and the Orangutan Foundation International.

But like many people’s plans, his were dashed by the onset of COVID-19, which, his mom said, Jack took in stride and moved on to his next project.

Among them were Jack’s trip to New York earlier this year to tour the C-16 Biosciences lab in New York, and meet with scientists who are in the process of creating an alternative to palm oil.

Jack said he was thrilled to learn that two months after his interviews with the C-16 scientists, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a Bill Gates Foundation-backed initiative, donated $20 million to the research firm.

Courtesy photo Jack Dalton holds up examples of the tote bags he designed and sells to raise money for the Orangutan Alliance.

He’s raised thousands of dollars for the alliance and the foundation, in part by designing, and selling, reusable tote bags made of 100 percent recycled materials.

One of his favorite activities is making presentations to different groups on his mission. His audiences have ranged from fourth-grade classes in Nashua to patrons of all ages at the Boise, Idaho zoo, which goes by the name Zoo Boise, and at the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston.

Among his oft-heard comments from his audiences, Jack said with a laugh, is “man … I had no idea.”

Jack takes obvious pride in his work, and the fact that he’s the second-youngest of the 20 Kid of the Year finalists and the only one from New England is humbling, he said.

“It’s an honor to be in the top 20 with all these amazing kids from all over,” he said.

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.

Courtesy photo Jack Dalton interviews a zookeeper of the day named Lexi at the Memphis Zoo, when he visited and presented to the zoo thousands of dollars in donations he'd raised for the Orangutan cause.