Treasure Coast nonprofits that research, protect, restore and advocate for clean water, especially the Indian River Lagoon that runs through all three counties, need more than holiday cheer to continue their mission.
TCPalm’s annual Giving Days fundraiser highlights how you can help these nonprofit organizations continue their important environmental work. The 2024 campaign helped raise about $30,495, which helped provide:
- 1 of 6 interpretive educational panels for the Audubon House Nature Center off Oslo Road in Vero Beach
- Funding for the Dolphin Ecology Project to publish 12 years of data on southern Indian River Lagoon bottlenose dolphins in scientific journals
- New lifejackets for the Environmental Studies Center’s River Scout boat
- A used aquarium for the Environmental Learning Center
- A spectrophotometer and large commercial food freezer for the Florida Oceanographic Society
- Six artificial reef modules to create a living shoreline and oyster habitat along 100 feet of the Indian River Lagoon near Old Fort Park in Fort Pierce, which St. Lucie Reef Builders will monitor for two years
- Manatee Center “Learn on the Lagoon Eco-Boat Tour” educational field trips for Fort Pierce elementary school students
- 10 microscopes and automated aquarium monitoring, control and emergency alarm system to alert staff to system failures at the Smithsonian Marine Ecosystems Exhibit at the St. Lucie County Aquarium
- A digital field microscope with a smartphone and artificial intelligence-equipped app that can almost instantaneously identify toxic cyanobacteria in the water.
That brings the series total to $280,495 — that we know of — since TCPalm launched it in 2018, plus in-kind donations. Previous campaigns helped buy 60 binoculars; 6 canoes, 3 kayaks, 2 boat trailers, a golf cart, truck tires; 3 microscopes, a centrifuge, depth finder, brush cutter, gardening supplies, tree seedlings/acorns; computers, software, monitors, accounting services; CCA-Florida license plate sales; and volunteers to plant trees and improve scrub jay habitat.
It’s not too late to donate to the nonprofits whose 2024 wishes were not fulfilled or only partially fulfilled…