FEATURED NON-PROFIT

As part of our commitment to being a not-just-for-profit business, What’s Good strives to bring awareness to nonprofits doing good work. Each month or months or sometimes even a full quarter, we highlight our selected charity on our website, social media, and within our orders—and we donate a portion of each order to our featured charity.  

Our featured charity for September is The Turtle Hospital: a non-profit that rescues, rehabs and releases sea turtles in Florida. 

This was unplanned, but feels right. Here’s why. Colleen and Larissa are a mother/daughter duo that have been visiting What's Good as long as we've been a retail store. If you didn't know they were mother/daughter you'd think they were just the best of friends, always smiling and clearly enjoying each other's company. They are familiar faces at our workshops and always make us feel like our mission is important. Definitely part of our community. 

So when we learned that Colleen passed away on July 31, we were all heartbroken. Despite their own grief, family members made a point to visit us the next day to let us know how much our team and shop meant to her. 

Wow. Just wow. 

Join us in honoring Colleen's memory by supporting her favorite cause, The Turtle Hospital. Here’s more about what they do:

Established in 1986, they focus on four primary objectives: 

1. Rehabilitating injured sea turtles and returning them to their natural environments. 
2. Raising public awareness through school visits and outreach programs. 
3. Engaging in and supporting research on sea turtles in partnership with state universities. 
4. Advocating for environmental laws to ensure safe beaches and waters for sea turtles.

Rehabilitation 

The Turtle Hospital helps many sick or injured sea turtles with issues such as intestinal blockages from ingesting discarded materials or excess crustaceans, shell damage from boat collisions, and entanglement injuries from fishing gear and other debris. The most common treatment is for fibropapillomatosis, a disease affecting over half of the juvenile green sea turtle population globally.

Research

In collaboration with the University of Florida and the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine, The Turtle Hospital is researching the causes of fibropapilloma tumors, which are linked to a virus triggered by water pollution and red tide. This disease is the only known one affecting wild animals worldwide. The virus has been successfully transmitted, proving its infectious nature, and current research focuses on identifying the cause.

Release

Since its inception, The Turtle Hospital has treated and released over 3,000 sea turtles. They are released as close as possible to their original location, allowing them to continue their journey. Juveniles, sub-adults, and adults are released on local beaches, while hatchlings and post-hatchlings are taken 20-30 miles offshore into the Florida Bay to be placed in a safe weed line. Public releases are announced on social media.

We hope your What’s Good purchases make your heart full knowing that for every order you place, you’re also supporting the good work of this non-profit organization. If you’re new to What’s Good, this is just part of our giving program. Among other donations, we also give 1% of our revenue to One Percent for the Planet. And, with every used box shipped (pick this option at check out), we'll plant one tree through One Tree Planted.

Learn more about The Turtle Hospital at www.turtlehospital.org.

Together we do more good. Thank you!