Stow It – Don’t Throw It Project

Our MLK Day of Service event included volunteers assembling hundreds of monofilament recycling containers. These will be used to hold race swag for Love A Sea Turtle’s 5k Trail Run on March 28 instead of plastic bags.

Sydney started The “Stow It-Don’t Throw It” Project chapter in Virginia. She’s been busy since attending the Youth Ocean Conservation Summit last year! I caught up with her in Beaufort and she shared updates on her work.

We attached Stow It-Don’t Throw It monofilament recycling containers on our kayaks during River Quest. They were used a lot! Now we’ll dispose of the fishing line properly!

We discussed marine debris awareness and prevention and assembled 350 fishing line recycling containers with the help of 25 middle school students at our Earth Day event!

I met Sydney at the Youth Ocean Conservation Summit and she really wanted to become involved in ocean conservation and make a difference. We discussed the Stow It Don’t Throw It project as a great start and she and her teacher attended my workshop and put a plan on paper. She has been planning non-stop since then! Congratulations, Sydney, on your recent presentations and getting your school and Girl Scouts involved.

Love A Sea Turtle is the North Carolina coordinator for Stow It-Don’t Throw It – a marine debris awareness and prevention project. With the help of area racquet clubs who collect the empty tennis and racquetball containers for us, we repurpose them into personal-size fishing line recycling containers. With the velcro straps, they can be attached to a kayak, boat, table, belt loop, etc. for collecting discarded fishing line and hooks and preventing marine life entanglement.

A group of ECU Honors College students partnered with Love A Sea Turtle for a monofilament recycling service project. Here’s their video recapping the project. “Together, you and me can keep a turtle safe at sea!”

Thank you East Carolina Honors College students! A group selected Love A Sea Turtle to help with a semester long service project. These students set up an awareness table that included assembling monofilament recycling containers. They are collecting empty tennis ball containers on campus from tennis clubs!!!

ECU Honors College freshmen, Boys & Girls Club members & Love A Sea Turtle had a productive day with multiple service learning projects. 16 students and faculty joined Boys & Girls Club members and myself baking cookies, assembling 200 fishing line recycling containers, and having fun!