Our Outreach Efforts Go To College

Dr. Lars Hafner, President of the State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota, with the 4-foot plush manatee.


By Judith Vallee, Director of Development
Save the Manatee Club

On July 1st, Manatee Community College, which has campuses in Bradenton, Venice, and Lakewood Ranch, officially changed its name to State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota, and now offers both two-year associate level and four-year baccalaureate degrees. This is important news to all manatee lovers, because the college also chose a new mascot, which just happens to be the iconic manatee.

In June, I accompanied Pat Rose, Executive Director of Save the Manatee Club, to visit with Dr. Lars Hafner, the college’s president, to present him with a four-foot plush manatee in honor of their new mascot. Dr. Hafner also became the adoptive parent of Flicker, one of the manatees in our Tampa Bay adoption program. Flicker was first identified in 1983 and got her name because she has a series of small prop scars that looked to researchers like flickering flames.

Bradenton is just south of the Tampa Bay area and located in Manatee County, which is a very important coastal county for manatees year-round. During our meeting with Dr. Hafner, we discussed numerous ways we could work together to raise awareness about manatees throughout the student body and the community-at-large, in joint educational efforts and promotional events. Dr. Hafner told us that eventually they hope to offer four-year degrees in science education and environmental science.

And, as Dr. Hafner drives around his sprawling district, he is personally raising awareness with a new “Save the Manatee” license plate identifying him as “SCF ONE.”

Working with the college affords us a wonderful opportunity to help foster the next generation of manatee advocates and scientists. We congratulate them on their new name and especially on their choice of mascot - and what a superb choice it is!

For more information about the State College of Florida, go to www.scf.edu.

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