Give A Manatee To Mom --
Name A Baby After Her, Too
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| SMC member and volunteer Amber Cassidy (at left) adopted a manatee for her mother Marianne Lowitz. “My mom has always been a lover of all animals, and I keep the torch burning,” says Amber. (Photo courtesy of Amber Cassidy) |
For further information, contact:
Janice Nearing, Director of Public Relations
Phone: (407) 539-0990
E-mail: jnearing@savethemanatee.org
Note: An electronic version of this press release and a high resolution jpeg (300 dpi) of a manatee image are available upon request.
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For Immediate Release: April 25, 2005
Moms, wives, grandmothers and best friends everywhere will be honored this Mother’s Day with deserving gifts of gratitude. Brighten her special day this year by making her an adoptive parent of an endangered Florida manatee. For $25, you can adopt a manatee from the nonprofit organization, Save the Manatee Club, and she’ll receive an adoption certificate, photo, biography, membership handbook, and a subscription to Save the Manatee Club’s newsletter, TheManatee Zone. Or for $35, each new member who joins the Adopt-A-Manatee program online will also receive a 25th Anniversary T-shirt, while supplies last. Keep it for yourself or include it with the gift adoption package for Mom.
To help commemorate Save the Manatee Club’s 25th Anniversary, you can also enter a first-ever donation drawing and have a real baby manatee named after you, or someone you love – like dear Mom. If your entry is drawn, you get to name one of the baby manatees born at Blue Spring State Park during the 2006/2007 winter season. Funds raised will go toward Club programs to protect manatees and their habitat, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting Blue Spring’s manatee protection efforts. Find out more information on the namesake drawing!
For Mother’s Day, choose from twenty manatees for Mom in the Club’s Blue Spring adoption program. Generations of these gigantic but gentle, aquatic mammals are tracked and recorded by the park’s manatee specialist. For instance, adoptees Lenny and Lucille are brother and sister and both regularly visit the warm spring waters at the park during the cooler winter months. Lucille has given birth to numerous calves over the years, and is now a great grandmother! She is easy to identify by her damaged right flipper caused by monofilament line. Lucille lost the lower half of her flipper where the line had been entangled. Though Lenny likes to lead a quiet life, earning the reputation of being a “sleepy head,” he has also led a tough life, suffering a number of boat hits and acquiring distinctive scars, particularly on his tail.
Club member and volunteer Amber Cassidy from Snoqualmie, Washington, adopted Philip from the Blue Spring adoption program a number of years ago. “I wanted to help protect manatees for generations to come,” she said. Recently, Amber adopted a manatee for her mom as an early Mother’s Day gift. “My mom has always been a lover of all animals, and I keep the torch burning.”
Amber and her husband, Rick, resided in Florida for a number of years before moving to Washington. Active volunteers for the Club, they staffed education tables at Florida manatee events, and continue to write letters to decision-makers. “It has been a great experience,” said Amber. “I love meeting people who are as passionate as I am about these creatures. I also like the way average people can really get involved in making this world a better place.”
Only about 3,000 manatees remain in the United States today. They are listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Funds from the Club’s three adoption programs go toward education and conservation efforts.
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