In the hall of Impact Hub Athens, where the annual presentation of ARCHELON's programs was held on Thursday, February 15, 2018, one could find familiar as well as new faces of all ages, who had come to honor the event with their presence.

The opening of the event was marked by the President of the Association, Thomas Arapis, who gave a slightly different speech than one would expect, expressing concerns and personal thoughts about environmental issues and the position of ARCHELON within them.

Later on, people of the Association, along with some remarkable volunteers, spoke in a very expressive and humane way about their most important experiences and achievements of the past year.

Of course, the audience was not left unimpaired by the turtle-stories they heard, which gave a "summer" note to the atmosphere of the room.

During the short break that followed, one had the opportunity to wander around, chat with the attendees, and get informed by posters, which displayed the statistics of each program in 2017.

The most important moment of the evening, and we believe that everyone agrees about that, was the awarding of 10 special volunteers (Babis Petrou, Dimitris Koklas, Michalis Moraitis, Ioulia Goutzageorgiou, Nikos Tsikoudis, Nikos Tzortzis, Thomais Kazakou, Natassa Kermeda, Danae Kondou, Panagiotis Diamantis ) who offered and continue to offer their best for our common purpose: the care and protection of sea turtles and the support of ARCHELON's work.

The cutting of the New Year's cake made by the President of ARCHELON together with its Founder, Dimitris Margaritoulis, the delicious buffet dishes and a surprise "CLIK" by the drone which photographed the beautiful smiles of all the attendees, closed the evening in the most pleasant way. It is worth noting that drones are used in ARCHELON's field programs under the LIFE EUROTURTLES program, which is co-funded by the EU and has allowed us to protect more effectively, a significant number of nests, in areas where the presence of the Association was less frequent until last year.

Winner of the lucky new year’s coin: Panagiotis Diamantis!

ARCHELON would like to warmly thank everyone who contributed in organizing and holding the event and especially the volunteers who stand firmly by its side!

(translation: Xenia Georgiadou)