Crystal River Manatee Festival Goers Get Grand Weather and Great Manatee Experience

(l-r) Connie Adams gets ready to create a manatee "tattoo" on one of the children visiting the festival, while Paulette Froehlich looks on. Both Connie and Paulette were volunteers for the Florida Manatee Festival in Crystal River on January 8 and 9. (Photo by Helen Spivey)

By Helen Spivey,
Co-Chair, Save the Manatee Club Board of Directors

The Manatee Festival, held the second weekend in January in the city of Crystal River, Florida was a walloping success this year. The weather was great. The crowds were really huge, and the participating artists, bands, food vendors, and organizations that try and help wildlife (including, of course, our Save the Manatee Club booth) were all tremendous.

After being rained on and near-frozen last year, we decided to spend some hard gotten cash on an "EZ Up" canopy to keep us and our materials dry. And it worked! We scared the weather and ended up with 80-degree temperatures two days in a row: the days were sunny with a few clouds and the nights were 50 degrees. When the 80 degrees got a bit much, we were treated with a gorgeous cooling sea breeze.

I think the person who was most impressed was longtime volunteer Nina Gynan, who had retired from her local nursing job in Crystal River and returned to her roots in New England. She arranged to schedule her annual visit this year to coincide with the Manatee Festival so she could work in our booth. It was such great fun to have her back. Both Nina and I love Rosie, one of the manatees from Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park who is in our Adopt-A-Manatee program, that when anyone didn't know who to adopt, Nina and I both chimed in "ROSIE!" Nina had to leave Sunday morning and fly back to chilly Boston while we lived it up in the 80 degree weather.

The Save the Manatee Club booth attracts visitors at the festival. (Photo by Helen Spivey.)

Visitors were so excited about seeing all the support for manatees. Many of the artists had devoted their creativity to fashioning some beautiful items featuring manatees. Any artist you spoke to would tell you of their interest in and devotion to saving the manatee. And many of them crowded our booth to get more information on manatees.

Connie Adams, one of our Sunday volunteers, met people with a manatee stamp and pad to afix a "tattoo" on a tiny arm, while asking in a cheery voice directed at the parents, "And have you adopted your manatee for this year?" It worked. Many parents said no, they hadn't but immediately adopted one or took the information on how to do it later.

All in all, it was a wonderful two days. The canopy worked and scared the rain away. (Of course it was an EZ Up but not necessarily an EZ Down. But that's a story in itself.) Altogether we had five folks working the booth on Saturday: me; Nina, her daughter Bobbie and her friend Mary McClean; and Isabel Spindler. Isabel and I worked again Sunday, along with Connie and Paulette. Matt Clemons, also an SMC Board member, helped by setting up the display and canopy and helping us dismantle it Sunday afternoon. In between, he took folks kayaking on the Crystal River from his Aardvark's Florida Kayak Shop, located right across the street from our booth, and by giving us access to a real bathroom. Nice!

Special thanks to Helen Spivey for taking charge and organizing Save the Manatee Club's participation in the Crystal River Manatee Festival, which she does every year. We couldn't do it without you Helen!

The Saturday "Crew." (l-r) Bobby Gynan, Mary McClean, Isabel Spindler, and Nina Gynan. Thanks also to the Sunday Crew: Connie Adams and Paulette Froehlich. And, of course, "Crew Chief" Helen Spivey, who was there both days. (Photo by Helen Spivey.)

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