2019 Trash for Turtles (Plus) Kick Off!

It’s October 1st…which means it’s kick off time!

I am so excited to get Trash for Turtles started this year! I can’t believe it is my seventh year! That is SO crazy! This year’s Trash for Turtles project will not only focus on sea turtles, but sharks, too! Did I mention that sharks and sea turtles are my two favorite animals? Because they are both my favorite, I decided to call this year’s project Trash for Turtles (Plus).

My goals for this year are to:
1) raise money for ongoing research and education programs, and
2) clean up our community.

Fundraiser

I will be selling these awesome tee shirts as my main fundraiser this year. Because I am going to be raising money for both shark and sea turtle research, we have a super cool new design with both — thanks to our talented tee shirt designer and artist Hosanna Hodges! These shirts are different than the other tee shirts we sold a few years ago. They were made with recycled plastic bottles, but these are 100% cotton. That means they won’t shed plastic fibers! (Check out my documentary about microplastics here.) All money raised this year will go towards shark and sea turtle projects along Georgia’s coast. Most will be used to support sea turtle tagging efforts by the Caretta Research Project on Wassaw National Wildlife Refuge in Savannah. However, about one-third will also support a lemon shark research study and shark education efforts at Little St. Simons Island. To order yours (or any of my other creations), go to my Fundraisers page.

Clean Up

I am calling my clean up effort this year the “Mahi Sweep”!  Because this is my 7th year of Trash for Turtles, my family and I are committing to seven river “trash fishing” events. I also want to inspire as many people as possible from all over Georgia and the country to pick up trash where they live and prevent it from being swept into our waterways and injuring wildlife. So, I am challenging all of YOU to join me! I hope this challenge will show that each of us, when working together, can make a big difference!

I know I cannot do this alone. I want to give a special thank you to the Caretta Research Project and The Lodge on Little St. Simons Island for working with me this year. I also want to thank Hosanna Hodges for helping me design our cool tee shirt. Most of all, I want to thank our sponsor Bowman Outdoors!

Thank you for reading about 2018-2019 Trash for Turtles (Plus) project. Now, let’s get started!