Giving Back in 2018 – Summer Marchelletta
When Philly Marketing Labs gave each of its’ employees $500 to donate any way we chose, I immediately knew this provided me an opportunity to practice what I preach. In my family, the older kids are both involved in national honors society and my husband and I are always giving reminders to stay on top of their volunteer hours and encourage them to choose something that is meaningful to them and it always makes me feel good to see hear them talk about their experiences when they get home and never hear a complaint. I immediately began to think about I can donate both time and money to organizations that I find are most meaningful to me.
After seeing the effects red tide has had on our beaches, it has weighed heavily on my mind and I wanted to know more about what is happening. Red Tide has shown up in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico killing hundreds of marine animals and birds. Large, harmful algae blooms cause red tide to be present. It is believed that fertilizers used for landscaping and farming are flowing into the water cause an increase in the blooms. I believe if people may be adding to the problem that it is important that we try to correct it. Selfishly, I want to help the red tide effort so that my family can continue to enjoy the beaches, but there are far more important reasons why research to reduce red tide is important. Red tide not only affects sea life, but it also contaminates seafood that birds and humans consume, can cause serious illness to people with respiratory problems and is causing a serious decrease in tourism in affected beach areas. This is why I would like to donate $300 to Moat Marine Laboratory & Aquarium, who is a non-profit dedicated to researching sea life. Moat has a team of scientists dedicated to researching red tide and the money will be designated to use towards efforts to improve water quality and harmful algae blooms. As a more hands-on approach, I have signed up to volunteer to help protect sea turtle nests with the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission.
Helping the SPCA is also meaningful to me because not only did I adopt my dogs from an SPCA, but they also helped me grieve the loss of one. That is why I reserved $100 for my local SPCA. I also dropped off a large food and water bowl we had and gathered up blankets and an unopened large bag of dog food.
The Salvation Army red kettle is special because they use the most donations to help relief efforts from the hurricane and wildfires. I plan to use $100 to put in the red kettle. While Christmas shopping, our local Sears was going out of business, so I purchased a few packs of men’s white socks, a doll, play-doh and a new stuffed Rudolf reindeer doll, which has been dropped off at my local center along with some used toys and clothes, which was a great learning experience for my 3-year old.
written by Summer Marchelletta
