ARCHELONʼs efforts to protect the Loggerhead sea turtles habitats, nests, hatchlings and injured adults, relies heavily on the support of volunteers and donations, indeed they are vital! As an NGO, non-profit organisation, financial support directly feeds specific activities such as maintenance of the Rescue Centre, the upkeep of its shelled patients and equipment for all of the projects!
So if you are thinking of fundraising ideas to raise awareness and perhaps some donations for ARCHELON, why not something simple like a cake sale?

Last week Fabio and I (Holly), both previous volunteers on the Zakynthos project, decided to have a cake sale for the turtles at our workplace in the Biology department at the University of Bath. After a few emails asking for cakey contributions, posters and late nights baking and icing we were ready. In the morning we set up a large table for the baked goods and a small info station. We were overwhelmed by the number of baked donations for our sale and the generosity of those who came to buy something to go with their morning coffee. We also had a few interesting questions and a potential adoption! After the majority of cakes had been sold, we took a trolley to the students union to distribute the rest to any hungry passers-by. What started off as a morning of cake selling, quickly turned into the afternoon and the familiar buzz of excitement from having a PA (public awareness) shift in Zakynthos returned and put a smile on both of our faces.

...and by the end of the day we had managed to raise ~250EUR (£212) to help our scaley friends!

After such a great response, over the next 2 weeks we have planned to give some talks, for people interested in learning more about our beloved Caretta caretta and we also really hope to recruit some more volunteers for the 2014 season!

**Recipe for chili chocolate turtles...

****Ingredients
**
For the turtle dough...
500g plain flour
100g caster sugar
100g cocoa powder
1tsp chili powder
250g butter/margarine
Some milk

For the carapace...
Icing sugar
Green food colouring
Chocolate drops

To a bowl add 500g plain flour, 100g caster sugar, 100g cocoa powder, 1 tsp chili powder. Mix well. Add ~250g butter or margarine and mix until you have ʽbreadcrumbsʼ. Slowly add small splashes of milk and mix until you have a springy dough (if you add too much, simply add more flour). Roll out to 1cm thickness and cut into turtle shapes (you can find turtle cookie cutters on Ebay) and bake for 10-15min on Medium-High heat. When cool use some thick green icing to make a carapace and decorate with chocolate drops - with 5 central scutes they look almost like the ARCHELON logo!

Καλή Ορεξη!

Holly + Fabio

See pdf file also!