Local Author and Artist Team up to Support the Friends of South Walton Sea Turtles

Soon the Sea Turtle nesting season will be upon us. Millions of beachgoers will flood the Beaches of South Walton, enjoying their fun in the sun. Beginning around May 31st and continuing through October, those visitors will be greeted by another species. Momma sea turtles will be finishing their 25-year journey around the world, returning to the beaches from which they were born, depositing their own little “hatchlings.” Such is the cycle of life. The Friends of South Walton Sea Turtles (FOSWST) volunteer beach ambassadors will once again trek our beaches preaching the message of #CleanDarkFlat, educating locals and visitors alike how we can all help the mommas deliver their nest without disruption.

This year, the FOSWST will have help, in the form of a simple coloring book, highlighting “The adventures of Theo.”

Local author Melanie Stewart and local artist Clint Eagar have collaborated on a coloring book that will help explain the dangers mother sea turtles face in completing their cycle of life uninhibited. The books will be available for purchase in May 2018, and a portion of the proceeds will go toward the mission of FOSWST. “This was a lot of fun to do and also a great cause,” says Melanie. “I’m looking forward to promoting the book and helping to educate children about sea turtle conservation. Melanie and Clint do not want to publish the full poem just yet, but here are the first few lines to give you a vision of what’s to come:

Under the moon in the still of the night, where the sugar white sand meets the sea, To the beach she was born, a sea turtle comes home, This time as a mother-to-be.

Deep in one egg in the clutch in the nest, in the hole that she dug like a fort, is a daughter she named Theodora, though we call her Theo for short.

And here it begins on the sugar white sands, that we call The Emerald Coast, The Adventures of Sweet Theodora, though she prefers ‘Theo’ the most.

Stay tuned, the first “Adventures of Theo” will be published May, 2019. Visit www.wherestheo.com for more information.

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