Fifth Annual Sea Turtle Festival

Keepers of the Coast President Tara Dodson invited Historic City News readers to join them at the St. Johns County Fishing Pier Pavilion on St. Augustine Beach as they welcome the return of the nesting sea turtles to the beaches of North east Florida.

The fifth annual festival is being held on Saturday April 16, 2011 from 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm.

Keepers of the Coast, a local non-profit is dedicated to promoting coastal stewardship and the conservation of coastal habitat.

This year’s event will feature a new interactive kids program “Keepers Cove” where participants can engage in a factual conservation activity and become a Conservation Champion.

The event will also include local live music, food, beer artistic vendors displaying their hand crafted goods, beach cleanup with a cigarette butt challenge, silent auction, face painting, and a guest character appearance by Richie the Sea Turtle from the new Picalata Kids, Inc. book series “Richie and Goliath”.

The Sea Turtle Festival is a free event for the whole family, and encourages the participants to learn about sea turtles that are considered to be endangered species, and to familiarize themselves with the various organizations that are trying to protect them.

The whole month of April is sea turtle awareness month and each weekend Keepers of the Coast will be hosting an activity to promote stewardship of our coast.

Volunteers, vendors, sponsors, and silent auction items are still being sought for this year’s event. If you are interested in supporting our festival contact us by calling (904) 814-2172.

Special thanks to the businesses that have already stepped forward to offer their support including: Picalata Kids, Inc. (Title Sponsor), Sweetwater Beer, Purple Olive, Panache Salon and Spa, Blue Sky and Maxim Marketing.