- November 26, 2024
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At the trainer's command, two bottlenose dolphins swam to the edge of their pool and posed for the camera behind two children Thursday, Oct. 24. This happened repeatedly, family after family. The pictures with dolphins were just one of the attractions at the Marineland Dolphin Adventure’s free admission afternoon, which drew about 120 visitors.
The main event Thursday afternoon was the presentation of a $10,000 donation from the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation for Marineland’s educational programs.
“It’s very important that we educate kids, especially about marine life because our generation has done a pretty bad job. The future of conservation lies with the children,” Harvey said. “The money that we provide here goes to bringing in kids (to Marineland) that otherwise wouldn’t come, and it is a priceless experience. Nothing beats the wow factor of seeing the animal in real life.”
The donation from the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation will sustain an ongoing program and launch a new one.
The sponsor admission program offsets the cost for Title I schools to visit Marineland for field trips and other programing that they normally couldn’t afford. Schools can participate in four Marineland education programs: "Bottlenose basics" talks about dolphin anatomy, conservation and how researchers identify dolphins. "Mission marine mammals" takes student to the conservation station where they work with marine mammal strandings. Students also participate in a mock stranding rescue. There is also a behind-the-scenes tour and the most popular program, "Dolphin diets," which focuses on dolphin anatomy in addition to a poolside touch-and-feed program.
The new program will be a long-distance-learning program, which will send a live web cam feed into classrooms around the world.
“We’re excited that a grant like this will allow us to really initiate the program,” said Kurt Allen, vice president and general manager of Marineland Dolphin Adventure.
According to Education Specialist Darrell Austin, the hope is to get the distance-learning program kicked off for the next school year.
The donation comes from the proceeds of Harvey's collaboration with the Florida Lottery. The second collection of the $2 Guy Harvey scratch-off ticket launched this May and has produced more than $21.5 million in sales, resulting in more than $4.6 million being transferred to Florida’s Educational Enhancement Trust Fund.
“Just imagine if the foundation and the lottery hadn’t gotten together,” Harvey said before presenting the check.
Secretary of the Florida Lottery Cynthia O’Connell was also in attendance for the presentation. O’Connell‘s late husband, Stephen C. O’Connell, served as president of the University of Florida 1967-1973 and helped to secure the planning and the development of the Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience at Marineland during his 1972 presidency.
“It is with great pride that I am here today as his widow,” she said.
