Some of you may know this about me, but my husband and I used to own two red-eared sliders. Jason and I bought these two tiny turtles as a wedding present for ourselves in Florida from a mall puppy mill…er…pet store. We didn’t know any better when we purchased them (meaning, we should have attempted to purchase our turtles from a reputable reptile dealer) and were happy and content to bring them into our family.
Over the years, we spent tons of time taking care of our turtles until their individual demises. Turtles are meant to live long lives. Unfortunately, one of ours was visually impaired. His eyelid never fully separated, so he had trouble seeing his food to get at it and defending himself from our other male turtle, among other things. He passed away at 6 years old. Our other turtle passed away a year later. We can’t explain it, other than he was lonely which doesn’t make any sense to us, since turtles are solitary creatures and generally do not need company.
Needless to say, turtles are still very close to our heart. We’ve continued to maintain our turtle website off and on throughout the years. And of course, when events like the gulf oil spill occur, my heart breaks to see all these mammals, birds and sea turtles coated in oil and dying in the clean up fires.
gulf_death_turtle2 by sum1nil, on Flickr
Fortunately, there are organizations out there concerned about the health and safety of the marine wildlife. Even BP Oil Company, the cause of this particular catastrophe, is making efforts to monitor the affects of the oil spill on the marine life after coming under close scrutiny due to how they were handling their cleanup:
Rescued Turtle is Examined by BP America, on Flickr
But the real heroes of this story are the organizations who have always cared. The organizations who have been there for the marine life from the beginning. What’s even better is that there are other organizations trying to help out as best as they can. Craft Hope is one of those groups.
Craft Hope is currently running a project where they are helping out several organizations by sending them handmade wash towels and rags. I have to admit, I’m generally a sucker for whenever the craft community comes together for a cause. Finding this project on Craft Hope was definitely a treat and I couldn’t wait to get started.
However, due to the overwhelming goodwill and donations by amazing crafters, Craft Hope has supplied the gulf coast relief organizations with towels for years! Years! Can you imagine? How awesome is that. Unfortunately for me, since I didn’t get a chance to help out, Project 8 is now on hold. If you’ve known about the project, but haven’t made the towels for donation by now, you can stop. There’s literally no place to store them… Just look at one of the stash photos that Kim, the project volunteer, had ready to go in her house:
You should also see the rest of the box photos and read her blog post on the delivery of the boxes to The Institute of Marine Mammal Studies.
Craft Hope did mention in their post that they would be checking with other organizations this week to see if there were others that might be in need of the surplus of hand towels. Make sure to check their blog for Project 8 updates.
How about you? Did you participate? I’d love to see your photos and/or blog posts on the towels you made. Leave me a comment with a link to let me know!
This post is part of the 52 Weeks of Blogging Your Passion series by Tara Gentile of Scoutie Girl. If you’re interested in participating in the group, pick up her e-book today! You can start at any time.
