SEBASTIAN — Riverview Park in Sebastian served as the educational epicenter for environmental groups and organizations on Saturday in celebration of Earth Day.
An assortment of booths lined the sidewalks as they do with many events held at the park throughout the year. But this time, instead of a park filled with vendors selling goods, the park was brimming with philanthropists advocating for the preservation, conservation, and overall environmental health of Indian River County and beyond.
For Liz Northcott and Chris Dare, Saturday was all about raising awareness for 261 animals that live very near Indian River County, but are from from native to it, chimpanzees.
Located just south of Indian River County, Save the Chimps is a non-profit organization that provides private sanctuary on 13 islands for chimpanzees that have been rescued from research labs, the pet trade, circuses, and more.
“It’s a retirement community. They are there to live out the rest of their lives in freedom,” Dare said. “Some of them had never seen grass before in their lives. To see them get out there and run on the grass is really amazing.”
“It takes $60,000 per chimp to run this place,” Northcott said. “They eat 13,000 bananas a day, and they live to be up to 50 years old.”
Like many of the environmental “do good” organizations present at Saturday’s Earth Day event, Save the Chimps runs its operation 100 percent by donations, and relies heavily on the manpower provided by volunteers.
The volunteerism mantra was echoed by staff and senior volunteers of the Sebastian Inlet State Park. In addition to raising awareness about the park’s many offerings, the volunteers were looking for able and willing bodies to commit time and energy to keeping the park healthy and the community educated.
“It’s an all-inclusive park,” said Captain Joseph Fuller, a three year volunteer and advocate for the park. “You can fish, swim, and camp there. There are so many wonderful things you can do there and see there.”
Unlike many of the parks in the area, Sebastian Inlet State Park is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It also hosts a myriad of events, tours, and amenities that largely fall on the shoulders of volunteers.
Volunteers are required to give four hours per week of their time, but can sign up to help with a long list of needs including beach cleanup, construction, guiding tours, rescuing wildlife, gardening, and more. As the seasons change, so do the needs of the park.
“Currently, we have several leatherback turtles that are nesting. That’s our big thing right now is protecting the turtles,” said Kim Thomas, a park volunteer.
If people are not interested in dedicating time to volunteer work quite yet, Thomas said a good way to get to know the park is by attending its many events and tours offered monthly.
A big target audience for the Sebastian Inlet State Park as well as for other organizations present on Saturday, was the young and ambitious crowd; youth in the area who have a passion for protecting the environment.
One high school student who falls into that category is Felicia Gordian, a 17-year-old senior at Sebastian River High School. While others were busy browsing the many tents and tables searching for a way to get their feet wet in environmental community service, Gordian was busy overseeing her own booth, representing the Green Club at her high school.
Giordan was part of the original group of students who launched the Green Club three years ago in an effort to recruit high school students to take an active role in cleaning up their neighborhoods and parks.
“We do beach cleanups, school clean ups, we do pretty much anything we can find that we can jump in and help with,” Giordan said.
The daughter of two zoo keepers, Giordan said she has had a passion for the environment for as long as she can remember and has always had an itch to do something about it. She does not plan on leaving her passion behind after graduation, but hopes to pursue a related career, perhaps in environmental advocacy.
Just down the path from Giordan’s Green Club booth, 11-year-old Morgan Balsley was calling the shots at her organic tea and lemonade stand, a business she launched with the help of her parents only months ago.
The inspiration for her business came while volunteering in a local coffee shop and gaining an understanding of the importance of using fresh, organic, and local ingredients.
“Whenever you have organic ingredients, it’s not only healthier, but it also has a different taste,” Balsley said. “I like the taste and think it’s a lot better.”
In addition to using organic ingredients in her fresh lemonades and teas, Balsley is dedicated to using recycled paper products that can be recycled again.
Though she has just begun making her presence known at local farmer’s markets and festivals, Balsley has devised a plan with the help of her parents to set aside a portion of her proceeds in savings to go toward opening her own store front one day.
As volunteer sign-up sheets and donor lists slowly filled up throughout the day at the various booths, it was clear that young people just like Giordan and Balsley have plenty of opportunities to positively impact the planet, and many of them are doing just that.
For more information on the organizations present at Saturday’s event and how to contact them, contact the Sebastian River Area Chamber of Commerce, www.sebastianchamber.com.
