Susan D. Joffe, Assistant Director, The St. Joe Community Foundation announced a grant of $3,500 has been awarded to the South Walton Turtle Watch organization to pilot a project at Butler Elementary School entitled, “The Turtle Tracking Toolkit:  An Interactive Resource for Teachers.”  Sharon Maxwell, Director of the South Walton Turtle Watch, accepted the funding on behalf of the organization made up of over 50 volunteers and partners. Ms. Maxwell thanked the St. Joe Foundation for supporting the pilot project, which will develop and disseminate a Turtle Tracking Toolkit for elementary teachers, including a Turtle on the Web site to support the Toolkit activities and resources.  Project staff will develop lessons plans, activities, posters, reference books, and equipment and technology related activities.   The project will also provide training to elementary teachers to effectively use the educational materials by linking the lesson plans to the Florida Sunshine Standards. Butler Elementary School has already been actively involved with the Turtle Watch organization through its Tillie The Turtle art contest.  This project provides additional resources to increase environmental education for children.

Sharon Maxwell will manage the project with the assistance of the following Turtle Watch volunteers: Constance Rogers, Nationally Board Certified Teacher, art educator for the past 16 years, Turtle Watch Volunteer on permit for six years, and the liaison between South Walton Turtle Watch district’s schools; Lynn Abbit, a retired master teacher with over 25 years of experience ranging from Montessori pre-school through community college; Amy Gold, Butler Elementary School; Kim McDonald, Biology Teacher South Walton High School; and Dr. Sandra H. Flowers, Senior Consultant for the Academy for Educational Development in Washington DC.

Note:  The mission of the South Walton Turtle Watch (SWTW), a 501(c) non-profit organization, is to insure the protection of nesting sea turtles, their nests, eggs, hatchlings, and habitat. Formed in 1995, SWTW has over 50 volunteers in a well-organized network who: (1) monitor county beaches from May 1 to October 31 each year, (2) provide training to new volunteers, (3) conduct fund raising activities, (4) provide current information and programs to youth and adult residents in Walton County, (5) take care of local sea turtle strandings, and  (6) provide nesting/hatching data to local, state and federal agencies. We are trained in many areas of nest moving, light protection, crawl identification, hatchling survival methods and taking care of stranded sea turtles.  Volunteers have walked over 11,000 person-miles of beach and marked and protected 335 nests, supervised the hatching of well over 20,500 eggs and spent hundreds of hours each year educating the public on the plight of sea turtles and the solutions to those problems.

About The St. Joe Community Foundation

The St. Joe Company created The St. Joe Community Foundation (STJCF), formerly named Northwest Florida Improvement Foundation, in 1999 to invest in community initiatives that pay long-term returns on the quality of life in Bay, Franklin, Gulf, and Walton counties.

Since its inception, STJCF has granted over $1,130,000 in Bay County; $266,000 in Franklin County; $610,000 in Gulf County; over $1,170,000 in Walton County, and more than $641,000 for multi-county initiatives totaling more than $3,800,000 in grants to the region.

STJCF’s unique funding structure is based on payments from St. Joe that are a percentage of the proceeds from new sales in specific St. Joe communities.  Payments continue each time the properties are resold through deed covenants requiring a transfer fee to be paid to STJCF each time a property is subsequently sold.  In this way, St. Joe, and the property owners who live in our neighborhoods are partnering with the community for the betterment of the entire region.

Focused primarily on education, regional health care delivery, art and culture, parks and recreation, and community spirit, Foundation investments are based on building civic infrastructure and providing on-going improvements in the region through grants and initiatives that promote teaching and learning and create healthier communities.  To learn more about STJCF or to request a 2003 annual report, log on to www.stjcf. com.