Love A Sea Turtle is a 2016 Global Youth Service Day Lead Agency!

Students attending our Environmental Symposium heard from Dr. Jamie DeWitt (ECU Pharmacology & Toxicology), Dr. Eban Bean (ECU Engineering, Institute for Coastal Science & Policy), Dr. Mike O’Driscoll (ECU Geological Sciences) and Mark Vander Borgh (NCDENR Algal Ecologist) along with a video message from ocean conservationist Wendy Benchley. Teachers participated in a special session with Shawn Moore (Center for STEM Education) and Holly Denham (Project Wet).

Our Neuse River Guardians Environmental Symposium is a Global Youth Service Day, Disney Friends for Change, Earth Day, and National Environmental Education Week celebration! Special thanks to our symposium presenters, partners and sponsors!

Love A Sea Turtle will be holding the Neuse River Guardians Environmental Symposium on April 20, 2015 as part of Global Youth Service Day!

Global Youth Service Day was celebrated on Friday with a garden planting at the Boys & Girls Club. A Snack Rx reception was held to celebrate the removal of vending machines from the club and a healthier snack program has been implemented!

We’re celebrating Earth Day on Saturday, April 20, with a river clean-up, trail clearing, watershed filtering, hazelnut planting, and recycling project. Approximately 100 volunteers from the community and Boys & Girls Clubs will be working together to protect and preserve our natural resources.

Our Global Youth Service Day event will take place on Friday, April 26 at the Boys & Girls Club. There will be garden plantings and tours plus a celebration of the Snack Rx program, a community collaboration with ECU School of Nutrition Science. The vending machines have been removed from the Boys & Girls Club and a healthier snack program has been implemented.

YSA welcomes Help Them L.A.S.T. – Love A Sea Turtle as a member of the Global Youth Service Network and part of a coalition of local, state, national, and global organizations committed to increasing the number and diversity of young people serving in order to improve themselves and their communities in substantive ways.

Here are some highlights from our tree planting and river clean-up. 100 hazelnut trees were planted for agricultural and environmental benefits. Hazelnuts require less water, sequester more carbon and and reduce soil erosion and nitrogen pollution. The apple orchard has been expanded. When the apple trees bear fruit, the apples will be donated to a local food bank. We’re happy to report there was minimal trash in the river! There was even a compostable toilet everyone was encouraged “to try”. With the help of the Boys & Girls Club, ECU students, Kohl’s Cares volunteers, JROTC, and other groups who provided hands-on activities during the afternoon, we had a successful day with 150 participants.