There’s one thing you can always count on if you’re a volunteer at the turtle hospital: expect the unexpected. We’ve had plenty of surprises over the years, but when a functioning, juvenile Loggerhead with about half of her carapace smashed to smithereens arrived we couldn’t do anything but stand there with our mouths open.

The Family Giving Challenge - put your game faces on and come up with some creative ways to get together your $1,000 donation for our building fund. We have an astounding number of kids who request donations for our patients in lieu of a birthday present. And these kids give repeatedly, year after year. Toddlers to teens show up at our summer open house lugging heavy bags of coins for our turtles; money they earned from lemonade stands, bake sales, special sporting events and chores; often hundreds of dollars in coins.