Media Releases
Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre Overflowing with Volunteer Hours
Posted on: November 18, 2009
Can you imagine working 24 hours every day for half a year straight? That’s how many volunteer hours have been dedicated to the Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre in just over four months of being open to the public. Every one of the 5,235 hours spent interacting with visitors or behind the habitat scenes have helped bring the Centre to life. It’s the spirit and passion of the 200 remarkable volunteers that define the Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre.
Each day, the first shift of volunteers are up with the sun to feed the Centre’s colourful critters their breakfast – fresh algae and plankton are on the menu. Many of the volunteers, more appropriately called Oceaneers, have a favourite fish or marine animal to feed. For Kendra Fowler, it’s feeding the octopus, who eats something larger than microscopic plankton. He is hand fed mouth-watering herring. The Oceaneers then polish the habitats and take their places to welcome the first flood of eager visitors.
Like all of the Oceaneers, Marlies Westlake is an ocean advocate and feels a responsibility to share its awe with curious visitors. She began her volunteering in Sidney at the former Whale Museum. Many of the other enthusiastic Oceaneers, ranging in age from 11 to 80, also began their commitment to ocean education and public awareness at the Whale Museum, or at Dr. Bill Austin’s Marine Ecology Centre.
The sincere commitment of the Oceaneers to share the underwater wonders at Sidney’s doorstep has made over 80,000 visitor experiences with the ocean personal and memorable.
About the Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre
The Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre is an aquarium and marine education centre focused on the amazing ecosystem of the Salish Sea. The Centre operates as a not-for-profit community facility that is self supporting through admission fees, grants and donations. The Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre is governed, funded and owned by the New Marine Centre Society. Funds for the Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre were raised through generous community support, and a major donation from Shaw Communications. The Centre is located in a spectacular waterfront building in Sidney, BC.
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To meet some of the Oceaneers and for further information, contact Robyn Waterman, Public Relations Manager, Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre, 250.665.7511 or pr@oceandiscovery.ca
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