Heather Gilder has a dream job — gift shop specialist at the Marine Discovery Center, Smyrna Beach, Florida. “It’s wonderful,” she says, “because it touches on many, many passions in my own life. Whether it’s welcoming guests or providing a great souvenir or gift for them, I feel like I’m doing my part, making sure things don’t end up in our waterways.”
In addition to managing and buying for the gift shop, she’s the welcome center coordinator and assists with the animal exhibits. Wearing all those hats “has really helped me with buying for the shop,” Gilder says. “I partner hand-in-hand with our aquarium and play off the animal collection.”
Practicing what they preach
Items available in the store were carefully chosen by Gilder for their connection to the center’s inhabitants as well as their kindness to Mother Earth. Awaiting cuddles are plush eco-friendly dolphins and sea turtles from San Diego-based Shore Buddies. “They’re adorable,” says Gilder, “and they’re made out of plastic water bottles. It takes six to make each toy.”
“I can’t sit here and say, ‘let’s keep plastics out of our oceans or only use sustainable products’ and not have any of that to offer.” — Heather Gilder
Grownups can find home goods and vegetable-based soaps and shampoo bars by Primal Elements, Huntington Beach, California, a company that neither tests on animals nor uses animal-derived ingredients. Its goods are packaged in biodegradable cellulose. There’s also jewelry from 4Ocean, the Boca Raton, Florida, company that pledges to remove one pound of plastic from the oceans with every bracelet purchased.
Stocking these items is part of “practicing what we preach,” says Gilder. “I can’t sit here and say, ‘Let’s keep plastics out of our oceans or only use sustainable products’ and not have any of that to offer.”
Reaching the kids
Especially important to Gilder is communicating conservation values to the younger generation. Besides the plush animals, there are the sustainably sourced, biodegradable Woodstickers from Dust City Designs, Denver. Unlike the vinyl stickers kids collect, these don’t leave behind microplastic pollution, and even come packaged in biodegradable cellophane sleeves.
“We get a lot of kids on school field trips, and the wooden stickers are a huge hit; they’re what the kids purchase most besides reusable straws,” says Gilder.
Traci Trusler does online marketing for the center, but the children know and love her as Mermaid Traci. “So we have to give her some props here in the gift shop,” Gilder says.
Sparkly mermaid dolls, from Aurora World Inc., Pico Rivera, California, are stuffed with 100% biodegradable pellets from recycled plastics.
Eco-friendly Experiment
Gilder says working in the center’s gift shop is “a constant psychology experiment,” where she overhears parents steering their kids toward more environmentally responsible gift purchases.
Gilder keeps her ears attuned to her customers. “If someone says, ‘I wonder what kind of turtle this is?’ I can jump in with, ‘Well, she’s a Diamondback Terrapin, one of seven subspecies, five of which can be found in the river. By the way, would you like a reusable straw?”
