A school in New York recently came up with an original way to raise awareness and money for GBRMPA's Reef HQ Aquarium Turtle Hospital.

For the past few years, the 325 children in Fork Lane Elementary School, in Long Island have chosen a continent to study.

This year the school chose to study Australia and on a specially named 'Australia Day', each class made a presentation about their topic.

They came up with an activity that would appeal to children from kindergarten through to 5th grade, and after searching for information on endangered animals in Australia, they picked GBRMPA's Reef HQ Aquarium Turtle Hospital.
 
All of the children and the staff bought silicone bracelets for $3.00 each and after paying for the bracelets, they were still able to make their donation for $1000.00 to the Turtle Hospital.

The bracelets were in their schools colours, blue and white, with the words "Fork Lane Saves Turtles" and "Australia Day" along with a picture of a sea turtle and a map of Australia.
 
The mission statement for Fork Lane School is: "To foster an enriching atmosphere that focuses on developing character and student achievement on a daily basis."

As Laurie Haddock, music teacher and organiser of the fundraiser at Fork Lane School said: "I think that our 'Australia day' project fulfils that statement this year in many ways."

Reef HQ Aquarium Turtle Hospital plays a key role in rehabilitating turtles so they can be released back into the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.
   
Thousands of staff hours are required to provide around the-clock care and rehabilitation for the turtle patients.
The Turtle Hospital was made possible by generous donations from sponsors and members of the community.

Director of Reef HQ Aquarium, Fred Nucifora, thanked the students and teachers of Fork Lane Elementary School for their kind donation.

"Their support means the Turtle Hospital can continue to help sick turtles to get better and return home to the Great Barrier Reef."