(l-r) Helen Spivey, SMC Board of Director's Co-Chair, with Cookie at the Club’s education booth. (Photo courtesy of Michael Braunschweig.)

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

Saturday had huge crowds at the Florida Manatee Festival — way more than I have ever seen before. But factor in the great weather and you can understand it. There were just crowds and crowds. We had such great and interesting volunteers working the Save the Manatee Club booth. They made it so much fun.

A young girl named Cookie from Christmas, Florida, stopped by. She had raised money by selling manatee bookmarks that she made herself and by running in a 5K so that she could adopt “Lily” from the Club’s Blue Spring Adopt-A-Manatee program. Cookie was so impressive, just 11 years old, and she LOVES manatees. Her mom brought her over to the table. Cookie handed me a roll of bills — all ones rolled up with a rubber band. It was terrific!

There were fewer people the next day at the festival. The weather was chilly in the morning, then it got hot, and eventually Mother Nature turned on the air conditioner and blew us a nice, cool refreshing breeze from the Gulf.

We managed to get a few manatees adopted. One, of course, was Rosie the manatee for my friend who moved to New England. She’s Rosie's best buddy, along with me.

That day, I was coming down with whatever I was coming down with so I just sat in my "rocking chair" so that I could sit and rock, and if someone asked a question, I could easily get out of the rocker and answer them. That's what rocking chairs are for! I always thought they were for sitting on the front porch so you could rock away, watching the world go by.

Most of the questions were about how to see manatees at Three Sisters Springs, so I spent a lot of time telling them how to get to the "humpback bridge" on Kings Bay Drive and to make sure they parked at the shopping center and walked down the sidewalk to the bridge. Folks who live there don't like cars parking on their lawns. It’s a nice place to watch manatees go by on their way to the feeding sanctuary around Buzzard Island. The water going under the bridge is crystal clear.

Save the Manatee Club would like to thank all the dedicated volunteers who helped at the two-day festival, including Helen Spivey, Emily McDaniel & Todd Franks, Mary & Omar Bourassa, Mary Freeney, Susan Aungst, Ruth King, David Herbert, Jessica Kelley, Mallory Gasky, Jaclynn Merk, and Michele Marziano. We couldn't have done it without you!

Volunteers (l-r) Emily McDaniel (with pooches), Jaclyn Merk (standing), and Todd Franks (by the Club’s display) get manatee information together for festival-goers. (Photo by Mallory Gasky.)