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Girl Scouts of Tropical Florida Teams With Coral Restoration Foundation To Raise Awareness For Coral Restoration
Girl Scout Spokesgirls pose the question: What if a cookie can help save coral?
Serving as youth ambassadors to Coral Restoration Foundation (CRF) two Girl Scouts from Girl Scouts of Tropical Florida (GSTF) – Olivia Antillon and Alejandra Jiménez – bring together the urgent need to raise awareness of coral reef destruction and the iconic Girl Scout cookie platform in a fun, inventive approach that will be featured on environmental variety show, Wormhole TV, in the coming months. As part of an ongoing partnership between GSTF and CRF, this lighthearted episode hopes to tackle a tough topic with a sweet response.
“Our generation is basically the generation in between the destruction of coral or the liveliness of coral, so it’s up to us to either destroy coral or help coral, and I choose to help coral,” said Girl Scout, Olivia Antillon.
Jiménez and Antillon developed their coral-themed cookie prototype at GSTF’s Camp Mahachee with guidance from professional chef, Ignacia Valdes Novik, who introduced Jiménez and Antillon to sustainable food colorant and algae superfood: Spirulina. Jiménez and Antillon then prepared two dozen fluorescent blue coral-shaped cookies decorated with sea salt caramel and pitched their concept with a presentation on the dire state of coral reefs to five board members and community partners of Girl Scouts of Tropical Florida.
Girl Scout, Alejandra Jiménez, kicked off the presentation with a convincing pitch: “Coral cookies combine our passion for restoring the reefs with everyone’s favorite cookie!”
Throughout a week of research efforts, Antillon and Jiménez learned from coral scientists and partners at CRF and Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium how coral reefs protect shorelines from storms, that 25% of marine life rely on coral reefs at some point in their life-cycle, and that without immediate action, 70-90% of coral reefs could die off within the next 30 years. And this issue is local. Miami's coral reef runs all the way down through the Florida Keys, and we are the only place in the contintental US where the water conditions are warm enough for reefs to rebuild and survive. After a week of learning, the Girl Scouts leveraged their research and entrepreneurial expertise to develop and pitch a potential idea of how a new Girl Scout Cookie could be just what is needed to elevate the need for awareness.
“To get people to pay attention, we need something fun, we need something engaging. People love Girl Scout cookies. Why don’t we make a Girl Scout cookie based off of coral with flavors from the sea?” Antillon proposed.
Chelsea Wilkerson, CEO of Girl Scouts of Tropical Florida, reflected on the Girl Scouts’ presentation sharing: “This is a generation of girls that has no choice but to solve the climate crisis, and if they need to use something like the Girl Scout cookies or any kind of cookie, to create awareness, excitement, and knowledge around the importance of the coral reef, then I say let’s do it.”
Coral Restoration Foundation is excited about the potential to raise awareness for coral with the help of the Girl Scouts and their iconic cookies.
“Being ambassadors in this way puts them in a position to share their information with their peers, but also other adults. Sometimes having an adult be told about this thing by a younger person can be so impactful,” said Roxane Boonstra, Learning Ecosystems Administrator with Coral Restoration Foundation.
“I hope they’ll say, ‘Oh, maybe one day they’ll turn these cookies into a Girl Scout cookie’,” shared Jiménez.
The work of Jiménez and Antillon was captured by the environmental documentary team at Wormhole TV, whose work ensures environmental topics are made accessible and actionable for the public. To learn more and follow the progress of this collaborative effort to raise awareness and protect coral reefs, please visit: www.gowormhole.com/episodes/coral-restoration.
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Coral Restoration Foundation: Coral Restoration Foundation is the largest reef restoration organization in the world. Headquartered in Key Largo, Florida, Coral Restoration Foundation was founded in response to the wide-spread loss of the dominant coral species on Florida’s Coral Reef. Since 2007, Coral Restoration Foundation has been working to turn the tide for this critical ecosystem, developing methods for “farming” and “outplanting” colonies of staghorn and elkhorn at massive scales.
The Girl Scouts of Tropical Florida: Girl Scouts is the preeminent leadership development organization for girls. Girl Scouts of Tropical Florida was founded in 1923 and currently serves nearly 3,000 girls in grades K-12 from every zip code across Miami-Dade and Monroe countries.
Wormhole TV: Wormhole TV is an environmental variety show that tackles complex environmental challenges through sketch comedy. With each episode, the Wormhole team engages climate researchers, scientists, and activists to reimagine how to make these experts’ findings more approachable and actionable for those who feel overwhelmed and unsure of how to make a difference for our shared planet.
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