2017 Trash for Turtles

We had a great 5^th year of my “Trash for Turtles” project!

We continued to raise money for the Georgia Sea Turtle Center with donations, recycling aluminum cans, and selling my new book Threatened Animals from A to Z . We raised a total of $1,408.51, which will go to help injured sea turtles get the treatments they need. We also did something a little different this year, too.

I wanted to take steps to improve the trash problem in our county. We do not have recycling or mandatory trash pickup service in our county right now, so we have a lot of problems with littering and illegal dumping. With the help of 34 of my friends and family, we cleaned up a 10-mile stretch of road leading to the County Commissioners’ office, recording and picking up 4,785 pounds and 10,781 items along the way. It took a lot of work and we had some challenges along the way, but we did it! You can read all about this journey here.

In addition to the trash cleanup, I created a petition and received 157 signatures and 45 comments. This petition was presented to our County Commissioners when I did my talk about my Trash-a-thon project. In this petition, I listed seven actions that our county can do to help our trash problem and urged the Commissioners to take action. I am hoping all this hard work will result in some positive changes in my community.

I had three main goals for this year’s project:

1. To get lots of people to sign my petition, so our County Commissioners will see all of the people that agree that we should find a solution to our trash problem.

2. To help the sea turtles again. My goal is to raise $1,000 for the Georgia Sea Turtle Center with all of my fundraising efforts (aluminum can recycling, book sales, and Trash-a-thon).

3. To get more people to want to recycle.

With the help of my friends, family, and community, I was able to accomplish all three of my goals. Together, we CAN make a difference…and I’m not finished yet!