New developments that started when a dolphin flapped into my life
I have been spending a lot of time lately at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium . As I've mentioned here before, I've been making a pretty radical career transition over the last few months and as a result my design blog has been suffering mightily. It'll be back with a vengeance shortly I promise. In the meantime however, I'm doing social media consulting full-time at an ad agency.
Anyhow, my work at the agency has brought me into really close contact with the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, or CMA. The CMA is a wildlife rescue organization, but that just scratches the surface of what they do. As people, they're a rag tag band of true believers who rescue, rehabilitate and release injured and distressed dolphins, sea turtles and river otters. The only animals that end up in permanent residence are animals that are too damaged to return to the wild.
The CMA operates in a converted sewage plant at the shores of Clearwater Harbor. They do the paintings they do on a shoe string budget and one of the approaches they increase money is that they open their facility to the public for tours. Do now not count on Sea World on the CMA. It's a running animal medical institution and the animals don't perform. A "dolphin show" at CMA consists of watching a veterinary exam however that's what makes it such an exquisite vicinity.
The CMA has four resident dolphins, Nicholas, Panama, Hope and Winter. All of these animals are incapable of life on their own in the wild and each has a fascinating story. Of all of them, Winter's story is probably the most compelling. If you don't know her story now give it a few months because by July, it will be unavoidable. Warner Brother's is distributing a film that opens in September called Dolphin Tale that's all about her. The media barrage starts Memorial Day. Here's the trailer.
When she was around a month antique, the dolphin now referred to as Winter become orphaned and in her confusion, were given entangled in the anchor line of a crab lure. As she fought the rope, she entangled herself more and ended up being beached on the east coast of Florida. She changed into determined by a wildlife agency over there and taken to the CMA and nobody should agree with she become still alive.
The vets at CMA amputated what was left of her tail and despite her disability, she showed a remarkable will to live. After a few months, the staff of the CMA heard from a prosthetic manufacturer who wanted to help. For the first time ever, a marine mammal was successfully fitted with a prosthetic tail .
In the course of developing a new tail for Winter, Hanger Prosthetics evolved a host of latest technology that they implemented to human prosthetics. In assisting this injured dolphin Hanger has more advantageous the lives of limitless human beings.
It doesn't stop with prosthetic development. the CMA runs programs for autistic kids and in the course of extended interactions with Winter, Panama, Nicholas and Hope, these kids break through the haze and reconnect with their families. They have a program for amputees and another one for veterans. In the course of these interactions, these people get their lives back.
Stories such as this one:
Three-12 months-vintage Sophie who lives in McKinney,Texas has loads in common with Winter ? Both girls are the equal age and that they each have prosthetics. Winter has a prosthetic tail and Sophie has a prosthetic leg. Sophie?S leg became amputated when she became an toddler due to a cancerous growth in it. Mom, Tracy, stocks, ?We desired Sophie to get to see that she?S not by myself and there are others like her. Winter has a magic fin, just like Sophie has a magic leg.?warm my heart in ways I didn't know were possible.
I met Winter for the primary time a month in the past at a marketing meeting with the CMA's CEO as we sought out ways to co-marketplace my present day consumer with the CMA. I discover myself making excuses to have more conferences with the CMA so I can grasp out with this creature.
I took this image of her on Monday afternoon while she became making eyes at me. I even have witnesses so I recognise I'm no longer imagining the reality that she acknowledges me now and knows who I am.
When she sees me now she stops what she's doing, stares and whistles through her blow hole.
The CMA is ready to break ground on a brand new facility in anticipation of the publicity weigh down it's going to surround the release of this movie in September.
Their new building is spectacular and the money they'll raise in the next year is going to allow them to help injured animals (and injured people) in ways they can't now and it's great to see an organization such as this one succeed as spectacularly as their about to.
To that stop and as of another meeting with them the day past, I've agreed to manipulate their social media efforts from this factor ahead. This goes to be a notable experience and as a bonus, I get to preserve striking out with Winter, Panama, Hope and Nicholas, no longer to mention the turtles and otters. But extra than even that, I'll be documenting the lives that get modified due to this amazing enterprise.
I say all the time that I'm the maximum fortunate guy alive and possibilities like this returned up that declare. Never in 1,000,000 years could I even have guessed three-and-a-half of years once I commenced a kitchen layout blog that it might lead to the lifestyles I lead these days.
If you'd like to learn more about the work of the CMA, visit their website . And I'll be back to writing about design again shortly, I promise.