Sicily Fiennes, ARCHELON volunteer since 2015

“I’ve been lucky enough to volunteer for ARCHELON these past 2 summers and I hope for many more;

There’s nothing like the sand between your toes, the smell of dinner when you’re irrationally hungry or the thrill of a turtle crawling up the beach in the dead of the night.

However, what I’m particularly interested in is how this translates back to daily life. Conservation is made great by those which strive for their causes and truths, in relation to certain habitats or keystone species, such as the loggerhead turtle or Caretta caretta. A fellow volunteer once told me that the people who nourished the project were what made conservation so enjoyable.

For me, that has turned out to be wholly true. As a result, I decided to enroll in ARCHELON‘s ambassador program, in order to promote a small, grassroots organization and to do something more unknown and challenging. I was told about ARCHELON by my Biology teacher at school who had gone in its earlier years and he still shares the online posts and maintains a strong interest in sea turtle conservation after 34 amount of years and it’s opened so many doors for me since our conversation a few years back.

Doing my first presentation, eager and chirpy, at UCL in London, where I study Biodiversity and Conservation, I began my talk of carefully chosen photos, equipped with a few nerdy turtle jokes. No one seemed particularly engaged outside of the large group of dedicated friends I had enlisted to come. A few asked intelligent questions. Of the couple of people who were stimulated to actually volunteer, I know they will smash it this season in any project, and carry on this chain of knowledge, which connects people of all backgrounds through their common love of the Caretta caretta.

If you ever have the chance to go to any ARCHELON talk, I’d highly recommend it as you won’t regret it. This serves as a reminder that small, collective action can help protect a subpopulation of just 1 endangered species but teamwork makes the dream work!!”

Lydia Koutrouditsou, ARCHELON volunteer since 2014

“Being an ARCHELON volunteer, and as a Biology student at the University of Patras, I presented the work of the Society and its volunteer programs to my class. The class’s main topic is Greece’s fauna and more exclusively Greek amphibians, reptiles and mammals was attended by 3rd-4th year students.

The presentation was intended to show how the students are able to volunteer at ARCHELON and gain field experience themselves but also help in the protection of the sea turtle and its ecosystem in our country.

My fellow students showed great interest and 5 persons afterwards approached me for volunteering either at our summer field projects or at the Sea Turtle Rescue Centre.”

Lydia is an active member of ours since she has been taking part in Zakynthos program each year since 2014. She is in honor of being the first ARCHELON Ambassador in Greece and helping us any chance given.

Sicily, as well, after two vigorous years of volunteering has decided to deepen her contribution to the Society when this year she became part of ARCHELON’s dynamic Ambassador Group.

ARCHELON Ambassadors, such as Sicily and Lydia, assist in our enormous efforts of making the dream reality each year for the monitoring and protection of sea turtles and their habitats.

Take a look at the presentations given to their universities, UCL, in London and University of Patras accordingly.

Thank you very much Sicily and Lydia and all the volunteers for helping us all these years!

For further information/applications about volunteering at ARCHELON: volunteers@archelon.gr