Honors student Alexandra Dardet found a novel way to do community service during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here’s her description of the service:
I assisted in creating tracks in the sand for baby leatherback sea turtles with 7 Quillas. 7 Quillas is a non-profit organization based in Ocean Park, San Juan, Puerto Rico. Their mission is to help protect endangered sea turtles such as the Leatherback species and assist in beach clean-ups and guarding sea turtle nests. The Leatherback (also known as “Tinglar” in Spanish), is one of the largest sea turtle species in the world and has the widest global migratory distribution.
What I did in this activity was create tracks in the sand to assist newborn baby Leatherbacks reach the ocean safely. The activity was done at night although some tracks were formed during the day. The reason it was done at night was to avoid clutter at the beach from beach goers, seagulls, dogs, or other hazards that could intervene with the turtle’s goal of reaching the ocean. This activity also included an organizational speech teaching about what the Leatherback / Tinglar turtle is and how people can help protect it.
