Boots is an old hand at this by now, knows us old (age and time at the hospital!) volunteers and any turtle hold-overs from the previous year, and she supplemented her guiding hand with her student leaders, Nicole and Mitch who were back for another year. In fact, this is Nicole’s third visit, and she’s hoping Boots will allow her a fourth and final year with our turtles.
The program is limited and the selection process is challenging. And it’s not like these kids just hop on the bus the day before and show up at the hospital. Qualifications include a major in a science related field, knowledge about sea turtles and being open to learning new things.
Nicole said they look for students “who can grow with the experience” and try for a “mix of years” so the opportunity is open to all grades. Once selected they prepare with a series of pre-trip meetings and a pre-trip service project focusing on the environment and conservation.
With many months of extraordinary effort by our volunteers we were all ready for a week of Terp help. The students were thrilled to be able to have so much hands-on time with our turtles; feeding, giving baths and helping with the treatments. They soon found out that “turtles have completely different personalities.” Yep – they do. They were also impressed at “the variety of innovative treatments” we use (e.g. honey for open wounds) and the fact that “you’re actually doing surgeries here at the hospital.” “One of the best experiences I’ve ever had” and “puts college in perspective; there are bigger worlds out there.” They also noted that “although every day has a different ‘personality’ the treatments are standardized so the turtles get consistent care.” All agreed that Beasley turtles have such great outcomes because our hospital volunteers pour so much love into our work.
In addition to working at our hospital for the week the group also went to UNCW for a necropsy, visited Duke Marine in Beaufort and checked out the north and south ends of Topsail to see first-hand the effects of erosion and the efforts to control it. They spent several hours at the Cape Fear Raptor Center (arranged by our hospital volunteer Greg Barsanti and conducted by center director Dr. Joni Gnyp.) On Thursday they manned the education stations in our great hall as we welcomed about two-hundred students from Burgaw Elementary. They did a great job: the kids asked lots of questions and the Terps were patient and thorough in answering all of them. And a shout-out to those teachers and parents who came with those kids, they were a great group of young’uns and we all enjoyed our morning with you!
Thanks Terps, for giving up your free time to our turtles. We appreciated your visit and hope to see (at least a few of) you next year.
