What Dad Would Rather Have On Father’s Day…
For further information, contact:
Janice Nearing,
Director of Public Relations
Save the Manatee Club
Phone: (407) 539-0990
E-mail: jnearing@savethemanatee.org
For Immediate Release
Note: Note: A high resolution jpeg (300 dpi) of a manatee image, as well as a photo of Samantha Samarelli, are available upon request.
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Samantha and her favorite plush manatee.
(Photo by dad, James Samarelli Sr.)
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This Father’s Day, gift-giving options might include a pair of socks, another tie, OR a gigantic marvel roaming beneath Florida’s waters for over a million years. Chances are Dad would go for the endangered Florida manatee. Save the Manatee Club offers manatee gift adoptions for $25 that include a color photo of a real manatee, an adoption certificate, biography, membership handbook, and subscriptions to the Club’s newsletters. The mission of the Florida-based, national nonprofit organization, co-founded thirty years ago by singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett, is to protect endangered manatees and their aquatic habitat for future generations.
“We adopted manatees last year because our family loves animals,” said 11-year-old Samantha Samarelli from New Jersey. “For Father’s Day we adopted Dana and for Mother’s Day we got Whiskers. They’re so cute and they’re also related — Dana is Whisker’s mom.” Samantha’s mom, Kim, said her husband, James, loved the idea of his family adopting a manatee for him.
There are over 30 real, living manatees with known life stories to choose from in the Club’s Florida adoption programs. And this Father’s Day, each new member who joins the Adopt-A-Manatee® program for a $35 tax-deductible donation, will also receive the Club’s new official 30th Anniversary T-shirt featuring a beautiful tropical design on the back by renowned wildlife artist Nancy Blauers.
Manatees are Florida’s official state marine mammal and they’re listed as endangered at the state, federal, and international levels.
“Save the Manatee Club continues to meet the many challenges to the manatee’s long-term survival,” said Patrick Rose, aquatic biologist and Executive Director of the Club. “Despite these challenges, we continue to make great headway, thanks to all those who strive to help us make a positive difference in the lives of these incredible marine mammals.”
Father’s Day adoptions will help fund manatee rescue, rehabilitation, and release efforts; research; education and public awareness projects; conservation work to protect manatees and their habitat; and programs in the United States, Central and South America, the Wider Caribbean, and West Africa.
For more information about manatees and to adopt one for Father’s Day – contact Save the Manatee Club at 500 N. Maitland Ave., Maitland, FL 32751, call 1-800-432-JOIN (5646), or click here to get more information online.
Media interviews with Save the Manatee Club biologists are available upon request.
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