Ella Mae makes the day at this year’s Crystal River Manatee Festival. (Photo by Tracy Colson)

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

It was such beautiful weather for the two-day January Festival in Crystal River celebrating manatees. The crowds just poured out and there was soooo much manatee stuff. The big, beautiful blow-up manatee at Save the Manatee Club’s education area at the Heritage Village Gazebo had everyone talking MANATEES. Mary Bourassa, one of our wonderful Sunday morning volunteers, came up with the name, “Ella,” so we went along with it. Since then, I added another name to it, so it’s now “Ella Mae,” a southern lady manatee.

Ella Mae was a definite hit. Everyone posed in front of the super giant inflatable manatee getting friends to take their pictures with their cell phones. Sometimes our volunteers volunteered to take a picture of the entire group and that was always gratefully accepted. We have such terrific volunteers.

What was very heartwarming were the many people who stopped by wanting information on how they could help the manatees. When they picked up information from our table and started to leave, we thanked them for caring about manatees, and so many turned back, smiled, and said, "No, thank YOU." This was the first time the Club had T-shirts for sale at this festival, and they were a very hot item, with many folks choosing to wear them right then and there before leaving our table. One family of five adopted a manatee and bought a Save the Manatee T-shirt for each of them. Hats need to go off to hard-working Club volunteers Todd and Emily Franks, and many thanks to our ever-faithful group of volunteers who showed up and helped us throughout the festival weekend.

Todd Franks was one of several hard-working volunteers who helped out during the Crystal River Manatee Festival. (Photo by Emily Franks)

Also during the Manatee Festival, the Club’s staff biologist Courtney Edwards and volunteer Capt. Arthur Eickenberg staffed an education table during the Refuge Open House at Three Sisters Springs. (Photo by Tracy Colson)