When a rare cold spell in February left thousands of Texas’ sea turtles unable to regulate their body temperatures, clothing company Shelly Cove immediately wanted to do something to help. Sea turtle rescue is already part of the company’s mission. In the six years the Chattanooga, Tennessee-based company has been in business it has raised over $200,000 for sea turtles, mostly for the Karen Beasley Turtle Hospital in Surf City, North Carolina. But February’s extreme weather called for immediate action for another sea turtle organization, Sea Turtle Inc., which was spearheading efforts to rescue sea turtles in Texas from the extreme cold.
Temperatures dipped into the teens along the Gulf Coast of Texas in mid-February, which is extremely rare. When it does happen, it is dangerous for sea turtles because they rely on ambient heat to regulate their body temperatures. When the waters dip below 50 degrees it slows their heart rates, rendering them conscious, but paralyzed.
Matt Schroeder, CEO, of Shelly Cove, saw what was happening on the news and wanted to find a way to contribute to the cause.
“Our mission as a company is based around animal conservation,” he says. “We saw a news story about Sea Turtle Inc., a giant sea turtle rehabilitation center in Texas that had thousands of turtles in their care at its peak. With the amount of volunteers and money they needed to keep that up, we felt like it was right in our wheelhouse and something we wanted to help with.”
Schroeder immediately called a meeting with the Shelly Cove team to come up with a plan for the fastest way the company could make an impact.
“A lot of times for big environmental events, we create shirts and donate 100% of the profits to the organization or group that was impacted, but we didn’t have time to do that, so what we decided to do was have a day on our website where 100% of the profits would be donated.”
All other business at the company was put on hold while the entire team, made up of 12 employees, set up the website and got partners and social media influencers involved to promote the effort.
“So many people were posting about it and it ended up being one of our biggest sales days ever, which was really cool,” says Schroeder. The company raised $15,000 for Sea Turtles Inc. from the effort.
In addition, Shelly Cove put a link on its site for people who wanted to donate to Sea Turtles Inc. directly without buying anything. Though Shelly Cove isn’t able to track how many donations came to the organization from that link, the link received 2,500 clicks.
According to several media reports, Sea Turtle Inc. had over 5,000 sea turtles in its care and was directing the rescue efforts on South Padre Island. The green turtles filled every square foot of the floor of the rehabilitation center, including the gift shop. When it ran out of room, the South Padre Island Convention Center also started housing the turtles.
Without the efforts of the many volunteers and the center, scientists say the sea turtle population would have been decimated by the cold – the worst cold-stunning event recorded in the 40 years since sea turtle conservation efforts have been active. The majority of the turtles were released back into the waters a couple weeks later as air and water temperatures returned to normal.
Schroeder says Shelly Cove wants to collaborate with Sea Turtle Inc. in the future on charitable efforts. The company promises to donate 10% of its profits to sea turtle organizations, but typically it donates much more.
“Ten percent is sort of our baseline, last year we donated 30% of our profits and every year we’ve ended up donating over 20% of our profits,” he says.
