My first month at the GSTC has been such a blast and I am still so thankful for and blown away by this opportunity. Numerous things have been happening here lately so let’s dive right on in!!

On Friday, October 9th, Dexter, TriSarah, and Tunicate were released back to into the wild which was such an awesome and rewarding experience. It was great to share in the mutual excitement of the release with people who had also been looking forward to it all week. Right after the release, all of the AmeriCorps members hit the road heading north to Atlanta. We took part in a service project at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School alongside other Georgia AmeriCorps service groups. I was asked to give a speech about why I served to the three hundred plus crowd. Needless to say, I was a little nervous! However, I was at ease once I looked up and saw all of my GSTC buddies sitting on the front row smiling at me! Our two hours of service included painting pictures on wooden panels that were to be posted in the school. We were also able to lend a helping hand to a sick Gopher Tortoise from Albany that the AmeriCorps group from there was nice enough to bring to us. I jokingly referred to him as Picasso since I had painting on the brain and the name has stuck! :-] I am happy to say that Picasso is slowly but surely getting better. Before heading back to the Golden Isles, we were able to visit our partners at the Georgia Aquarium for a deluxe behind the scenes tour. It was such an honor to see the name of our Veterinarian and Director, Dr. Terry Norton, on their honorary/"We couldn’t do this without you” plaque. My parents also had dinner with us!!

This past week has been busy as well! On Wednesday I received an awesome and encouraging evaluation from the director of the school group that I led around the Center. Thursday, I got to hold our Kemp’s Ridley (the most critically endangered species of sea turtle), Tinkerbell, while she was having the wounds on her carapace (top shell) cleaned. We like to say that she is getting a “shellicure.” My other adventure of the day was fetching a live blue crab to feed to Caretta Hope, one of our Loggerhead sea turtle patients. They were pesky little crustaceans! Today was exciting, as another Americorps Education member and I debuted the premier of the soundtrack recording to our puppet show Scutes Ocean Adventure. I am really starting to fall in love with the puppetry arts!

One last note…Make sure to check out the Center’s website for a new blog featuring the new GSTC AmeriCorps members and Picasso!