DAILY HERALD (Killeen, Texas) 02 January 11 Students sponsor injured turtle, shell out donations for hospital (Todd Martin)
Fort Hood: A story in a reading textbook drove a teacher and his fifth-graders to do something to help recovering sea turtles.
Jason Calhoun, a fifth-grade teacher at Oveta Culp Hobby Elementary School at Fort Hood, said his students read a story in their textbook about an injured Kemp's Ridley Sea Turtle's journey from Maine to a marine care facility in Florida.
Students began researching about injured turtles and ended up adopting a sea turtle named Rebel, which lives at the Turtle Hospital in Marathon, Fla.
Calhoun and his girlfriend, Heather Defilippo, a kindergarten teacher at Brookhaven Elementary School in Killeen, have a trip planned to the Florida Keys and decided to take whatever donations the students could raise to the hospital.
Donations raised $675, which the teacher pair will take to the turtle hospital. They also plan to bring back photos and more information about their adopted marine animal.
Hobby students raised the money through a bake sale, Christmas card sales and selling 139 T-shirts designed for the cause.
Defilippo's kindergarten students contributed by drawing pictures of turtles for the shirt design.
Calhoun said the project worked to build student awareness of environmental issues and to see that small-scale efforts can have large consequences.
"We got to help sell T-shirts and earn money to save turtles," fifth-grader Thomas Van Allen said.
The student said a lot of research went into the project.
The Turtle Hospital website indicates that Rebel suffered shell damage from a boat in 1991.
Students read the story just three weeks ago and were able to design the T-shirt and raise the money.
"I think it developed a sense of community and global awareness," Calhoun said. "They understand decisions affect the environment all around us."
For more on Rebel and the Turtle Hospital, go to www.turtlehospital.org.
Students sponsor injured turtle