Happy Independence Day!
Anne den Otter, Instructor & Outreach Coordinator
We all know that there is no better sense of community than a good old small town Independence Day celebration! Pair that with the intense Florida sun beating down on your shoulders, a slight breeze (that's not quite strong enough to keep you cool), the feeling of your hair sticking to the back of your neck, and you’ve got the perfect recipe for a 4th of July morning in the Florida Keys. I even woke up thinking this would be a great day to cool off in the water, rather than a dry, “land based” day (a very rare occurrence in the life of a MarineLab instructor). I quickly found out that after being in the Key Largo 4th of July parade I would be driving home in my damp clothes. And I wouldn't want it any other way!
Our patriotic sea themed truck in the parade staging area! Photo Nada Jones
To be honest, when MarineLab decided to take part in the parade, I didn't know what to expect. I figured it would be the usual - throwing candy, waving at cute kids, and maybe sprinkling them with some water from our water guns. Boy was I wrong. Before I knew it, we’re driving past a crowd of kids pointing their fully loaded water guns at us with absolutely no mercy. It didn't take long before we were engaged in some full blown water gun fights from the bed of our pick up truck. When I got a moment to glance back at the rest of my co-workers and saw we were all soaked from head to toe, but had the biggest smiles on our faces, all I thought was “Can you tell we work with kids?”
Lead Captain Walker was waiting along the parade route and helped cool off the instructors!
Seeing all sorts of people from the community come together to celebrate our country was only a small part of what made waking up early on a holiday weekend worth it. It was also seeing people’s faces light up when they saw MarineLab drive by in our fully decorated bright red pick up truck with “Under The Sea” playing at full volume. It was knowing some of the local kids in the crowd by name. And then seeing them get their parents' attention to point out some of their summer camp instructors. It was even people noticing our shark fin headbands with excitement rather than fear! I could go on and on. But the point is, we love our community!
This was our first year in the parade - we have lots of ideas for next year!
As a kid, I always felt super awkward running into my teachers outside of school. It was hard to imagine them having an actual “life” outside of the classroom. Now that I have found myself on the flipside of that (it is not uncommon to run into a MarineLab “student” in our small community), it has given me a very different perspective. It's always exciting to hear that our students go home and tell their families about all of the amazing things they learned at MarineLab. At the end of the day, that is the whole reason why we get into education: to “spread the word,” whether that means taking a group of students on their first ever reef snorkel, or engaging in a water gun fight from the bed of a moving Ford F150 on one of the hottest days of the year!