- April 5, 2025
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With their mural completed, the i3 Academy Marine Science students head off to FPC for classes on Friday. Photo by Jacque Estes
FPC i3 Acadmey student, Brittney Doutrick was one, of more than 20 students, creating Earth Day awareness art on the black board a the Funky Pelican at 5:30 a.m. Friday, April 22. Photo by Jacque Estes
Abigail Register makes sure everyone knows it's a global issue, as she completes a large world in chalk. Photo by Jacque Estes
Kristina Santiago works on the OKES/i3 Academy logos. Photo by Jacque Estes
i3 Academy teacher Courtney VandeBunte finds the UF Microplastic logo on her cell so Brett Shiflett can draw it on the black board outside the Funky Pelican accurately. Photo by Jacque Estes
Brett Shiflett draws the University of Florida's microplastic logo on the i3 Academy mural on Friday, April 22. Photo by Jacque Estes
Brittney Doutrick puts some finishing touches on a turtle on the Earth Day mural at the Funky Pelican. Photo by Jacque Estes
“Who took the legs off my mealworm?” a voice rang out, at the Flagler Beach Pier, before sunrise on Friday, April 22.
The question was asked by Will Naughton, the artist who created the oversized mealworm for the i3 Marine Science students' Earth Day mural on a blackboark at the Funky Pelican. The fact, whether mealworms have legs, was briefly questioned, but Naughton's expertise was acknowledged.
“Will knows his bugs,” teacher Courtney VandeBunte said; and the discussion was over.
Naughton was one of more than 20 teenagers at the pier at 5:30 a.m. to work on the project. The purpose was to bring awareness about the growing problem of plastics in the ocean and the shoreline, and the importance of eliminating Styrofoam containers, and recycling.
The teens are VandeBunte's i3 Academy Marine Science students. The project was part of a series of events the class has been working on. The mural was an extra credit project and, even though they started their day a couple of hours early, the students were expected to be at school on time.
“I am surprised at the turnout,” VandeBunte said. “I begged them to come, and I was trying to form carpools, but I am amazed at how many actually showed up.”
A phone alarm sounded. It was 6:30 a.m., the normal time one of the students wakes up to get ready to go to school. Today, it was a reminder he had been at the beach for an hour.
The students each contributed to the mural, adding facts about nurdles (a very small pellet of plastic that serves as raw material in the manufacture of plastic products), pictures of turtles, the Earth, the OKES Owl, and the mealworm.
Ellen Sperber, whose second grade class at Old Kings Elementary has been working with Vandebunte's kids, was also thrilled with the turnout, and surprised when one of her own students, Matilda Gardener, stopped by just as the older students were cleaning up.
“It is so important that so many high school students came out,” Sperber said. “They are able to give a greater understanding to the younger kids.”
Read a related story
http://www.palmcoastobserver.com/photo-gallery/watch-out-plastics-sperbers-second-graders-are-coming-after-you
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