Valentine’s Day is a wonderful day in our calendar, a time of the year to do something special for someone you love. This year, as I was thinking about the things people do for their loved ones, I received an email from an old connection, Janice Nearing at the Save the Manatee Club.
Janice is urging people to do something extra special this year, giving the gift of a real, living manatee. These unique, gentle marine mammals are beautiful, as you can see from the photo below. Janice and other members of the Save the Manatee Club are offering very affordable Manatee gift adoptions as Valentine’s Day gifts. Janice says the gifts help support the Club’s education and conservation programs.
Manatees Make Thoughtful Valentine’s Day Gifts
After seeing manatees, Floridian Anita McCarthy decided to adopt one, for her “very special guy,” Kent Andres. Love was “in the air” when Anita and Kent, both from Fernandina Beach, Florida, visited Blue Spring State Park, in Orange City, Florida.
“I had never seen a manatee before, and when I saw the manatees at Blue Spring, I fell in love with them,” Anita said. She decided on Flicker from the Save the Manatee Club’s Tampa Bay Adopt-A-Manatee® program because of the name and location. She says “Kent was pleasantly surprised with the manatee adoption for Valentine’s Day. We’re both especially impressed with the way the Club has actual named, living manatees to adopt. It gives the recipient the feeling of a true connection to the adopted manatee.”
The Club says the gifts are very affordable, so anyone can participate, and it makes a huge difference for the manatees. For $25, Save the Manatee Club sends your special Valentine package. The package contains a manatee adoption certificate, a photo, and a life history of a real, living endangered manatee. For $10 extra, you get a beautiful handmade Rowley Valentine ornament, as well
Gift recipients also receive a Save the Manatee Club membership handbook, the quarterly newsletter, The Manatee Zone, which features updates on the adopted manatees, and the bi-monthly eNewsletter, Paddle Tales.
You can see the list of manatees available for adoption on the Club’s website at savethemanatee.org/adoptees.
I had forgotten that singer/songwriter, Jimmy Buffett co-founded the Save the Manatee Club in 1981, with former U.S. Senator Bob Graham, when he was governor of Florida. Manatees are increasingly threatened in Florida waterways, and money from the adoption program goes towards public awareness activities and educational materials, such as waterway signs and boating banners.
Janice says the Club distributes free education materials to teachers and students across the U.S. and internationally, and helps fund manatee research projects and manatee rescue, rehabilitation, and release efforts.
So, for Valentines Day this year, consider giving the gift of a manatee adoption and help the Save the Manatee Club to protect manatees and their habitat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FDwnlSceQk
Watch manatees in real time in their natural habitat on the Club’s Blue Spring webcams at ManaTV.org.
Follow the Club on Twitter twitter.com/savethemanatee, Facebook facebook.com/savethemanateeclub, Pinterest pinterest.com/SaveTheManateeC/, and Instagram instagram.com/adoptamanatee/. Check out manatee videos on YouTube at youtube.com/adoptamanatee.
