76 New Junior Rangers

Friends members Peg Hall and Ron Kamzelski getting ready before the students arrive

A group of the students and volunteers at the Clean Water Matters Station on the fishing pier

On Thursday, May 4, 76 4th graders from Old Town poured off their two school buses into the parking lot at Shell Mound ready for adventure.

Over the next several hours, they completed five Learning Stations at Shell Mound:

• Marine Mammal Rescue
  
• Clean Water Matters
  
• Native Peoples of Shell Mound
  
• Doing Citizen Science, and
• Puzzles and Imagination at the Refuge
  

Along the way, they finished the requisite number of exercises in their workbooks.

Archaeology graduate students show artifacts to the students

Refuge Forester Daniel Barrand working with the students on a citizen science project

Six teachers and volunteers from the school, two bus drivers, four members of the Refuge staff, two archaeology graduate students, two Marine Animal Stranding and Rescue biologists, and 13 additional Friends' volunteers worked with the students to help them get to know the Refuge.

Having endured hours of abundant no-seeums and having met all the requirements, the students were sworn in by Deputy Refuge Manager John Stark as Lower Suwannee Refuge Junior Rangers and given their badges by Refuge Forester Daniel Barrand, Refuge Engineering Equipment Operators Jason Coates and George Pelt, and the other volunteers.

Friends member Jay Bushnell working with the students at the Puzzles and Imagination Station

Biologists and students at the Marine Mammal Stranding and Rescue Station

Providing the needed workbooks for this and another possible Junior Ranger Day in June was at the top of Friends Wish List in April. Thanks to Friends member John Douglass for fulfilling our big wish.

Students and teachers at the swearing-in gathering at the Shell Mound parking area