Club Presents Check From John Lithgow Event

Helen Spivey, Co-Chair of Save the Manatee Club's Board of Directors (center), presents a check for over $2,500 to Friends' Treasurer Chet Scott (left) and Park Manager Tom Linley (right).

For further information, contact:

Helen Spivey Co-Chair, SMC Board of Directors Phone: 352-257-9080 (cell) E-mail: manatees@habitats.org

For Immediate Release: December 5, 2003

On Friday, December 5, Save the Manatee Club (SMC) presented a check for over $2,500 to The Friends of Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park. Helen Spivey, Co-Chair for the Save the Manatee Club Board of Directors, presented the check to Friends’ Treasurer Chet Scott and Park Manager Tom Linley.

Save the Manatee Club’s donation includes half of the September 13 sales of the children’s book, I’m a Manatee, written by John Lithgow. The actor visited the park on that day and spent the afternoon entertaining children and signing books. The event was co-hosted by Save the Manatee Club and Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing. Half of the proceeds from the book sales went toward Save the Manatee Club's conservation and education efforts. The park will use their half of the funds for a special manatee-related project.

Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park is a rehabilitation facility for manatees who are recovering from injuries before being released back into the wild. Five female manatees who cannot be released from the park because of injuries or other life threatening reasons have been chosen as adoptees for one of Save the Manatee Club’s three Adopt-A-Manatee programs. Lithgow was designated an adoptive “parent” of Rosie, one of the manatees in the adoption program who lives at the park.

Currently, there are an estimated 3,000 Florida manatees left in the United States, and they are listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Citrus County was designated as a “key” manatee county in 1989 by Florida’s governor and cabinet, and waterways such as Kings Bay and the Crystal and Homosassa Rivers have been documented as having high manatee use and feature manatee habitat such as seagrasses and fresh water sources.

If you spot an injured, dead, tagged or orphaned manatee, or if you see a manatee who is being harassed, please call 1-888-404-FWCC (3922) or #FWC or *FWC on your cellular phone, or use VHF Channel 16 on your marine radio.

Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park is located at 4150 S. Suncoast Blvd. (U.S. 19) in Homosassa, Florida (about 75 miles north of Tampa). The park opens at 9:00 a.m., and entrance fees to the park are $7.95 for adults and $4.95 for children, 3 through 12. For more information about the park, call (352) 628-5343 or visit their web site at http://www.homosassasprings.org

For more information:

Manatee Information: http://www.savethemanatee.org/info.htm

The Adopt-A-Manatee program: http://www.savethemanatee.org/adoptpag.htm

Manatee protection tips packet for boaters or divers: http://www.savethemanatee.org/boatertips.htm
http://www.savethemanatee.org/tips.htm