A 17-year-old Lemon Bay High School student and Palm Island resident who qualified as a finalist in the 6th Annual Volvo for Life Awards, has designated Mote Marine Laboratory’s Sea Turtle Research and Conservation Program to receive a donation from Volvo.
Zander Srodes qualified as a finalist in the Volvo for Life Awards for his work educating the public – particularly school and youth groups ‑ about the worldwide plight of sea turtles. The Volvo for Life Awards is a grassroots campaign to recognize and reward everyday heroes across
America
. Each year, three main award winners and six finalists are chosen. In honor of their exceptional achievements, each is allowed to choose a charity to receive a donation from Volvo.
In 2001, when Zander was 11, he learned of the issues that sea turtles face in the wild from Linda Soderquist, an artist and
Venice
Elementary School
teacher, who monitored sea turtle nests on
Gasparilla
Island
. After Zander began walking nesting beaches himself, he decided to create his own educational program for children and adults to tell them how they could help change the fate of the animals.
“My first stop was Mote Marine Lab, in
Sarasota
,” Zander said. Jerris Foote, former manager of Mote’s Sea Turtle Research and Conservation Program, provided Zander with slides and information for a powerpoint presentation. Members of
Sarasota
County
’s Natural Resources Department provided handouts. Other supporters included the Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program and Coastal Wildlife Club, Inc.
With these tools in hand, Zander created his own program and began presenting talks to various groups. He applied for and received a grant from the Gulf Coast Community Foundation in
Venice
, which helped him kickoff the project. Additional grants from the Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program helped support publication of the “Turtle Talks Activity Book,” which was illustrated by Soderquist.
Today, Zander has presented his Turtle Talks to more than 1,000 students in
Sarasota
, Charlotte, Hardee and Lee counties and has distributed 100,000 copies of his Activity Book. The book has also been translated into French and Spanish and Zander was able to travel to
Trinidad, Costa Rica
and
Panama
to hand-deliver books to students there.
Zander decided to pick Mote as his charity of choice because of the program’s history and its current research. “It is really the greatest resource in our area,” Zander said. “Having the chance to intern with Dr. Tony Tucker and the rest of the sea turtle staff and volunteers has been a great opportunity to learn how a research program is run.”
Dr. Tucker, current manager of Mote’s Sea Turtle Research and Conservation Program, was honored by Zander’s donation. “By creating his Turtle Talks program, Zander has shown that even young students can make a difference in the lives of sea turtles,” Tucker said. “This new contribution from Volvo and Zander will also help sea turtles in a concrete way by supporting research to monitor and track animals in the wild. We can’t thank Zander enough.”
Zander has just finished a book on the gopher tortoise, which is increasingly losing habitat to development. The book has
