April Showers Bring May Flowers and the Benefits of Composting There are many benefits of composting, but finding recruits just simply growing out of the soil is a wonderful bonus to the other “feel good” aspects of composting. José Torres Lopez and Elimelec Hernández have been treating the rest of the CEA staff with some of their lagniappe. Click here to read more and to pick up on some local recipes. Cooperativa Orgánica welcomes Cate and Lynn Lowman’s home, Casa Savasana, to our client list of participants in the project. Cooperativa Orgánica is a CEA Action Project. We are working to decrease the amount of organic waste entering the underwater streams that reach the bays. However, we need more help from the Akumal community. Compostmen José and Eli continue to make their rounds collecting the fresh organics, composting them and bringing back to CEA the aluminum, glass and plastic. However, the number of participants remains small. Click here to learn more. Akumal Welcomes CEA’s New Director CEA’s first director, Mike Mulgrew, his lovely wife, Linda, and Laura Bush hosted a party to welcome CEA’s new director, Paul Sánchez-Navarro. The Akumal community had a chance to come together to see old friends, make a few new ones and share ideas for a more ecological spot of paradise. Paul really appreciated the show of support for CEA. We all had a great time and the party continued well past its planned end! Click here to see pictures of many who attended the event held in front of the CEA Information Center at the north end of Akumal Bay. Turtle Season We’re getting ready for the turtles to arrive!! Please help us get their beaches ready, if you’re on the Caribbean coast, by keeping plastics out of the water and off the beach; pulling your lounge chair up off the beach at night; turning off bright lights around the beach; keeping quiet and distant from a mother turtle coming ashore to build a nest and lay her eggs; and keeping your dogs off the beach. For other ways to help make this a successful season, with lots of baby turtles crawling into the waters after about 60 days of gestation, please see our Web site. Also, contributions to our turtle fund help make sure we are able to keep the project going this year. Thanks for your support. To learn more about protecting turtles and other environmental tips please click here. All proceeds from our Adopt-A-Turtle program go directly to the CEA Turtle Protection Program. Local Young People Learn to Tie-Dye It was an exciting day for the children of Akumal Pueblo thanks to an offer by Kathy Clemon and her niece, Aleena Hetzel, to do a tie-dye project. Kathy and Aleena arrived with all the supplies they needed and spoke with Nadia Mora, who arranged to have the children at The CEA Center the following Saturday morning. Click here to read the entire story. Solar Workshop Huge Success A solar water heater now sits on the roof of the CEA dorms where volunteers stay and above the home of Carlos Chuc Tuyub, a popular Akumal waiter who lives in the pueblo. More than a dozen people from Akumal, Cancún, the U.S., and Canada built the solar heaters during the successful Solar Energy Workshop at CEA in March. Click here to read more. Earth Day Events We are preparing, and have been doing so all this month, for the celebration of “Earth Day.” This year's theme is “The Water.” Several activities have been organized for the celebration: Drawing or painting contest (theme: The Water) March 22, final on April 22, at noon. Prizes will be given by Mayor of Solidaridad, Playa del Carmen. “Letter to the Water” contest March 22, final on April 22 at noon. Prizes will be given by Mayor of Solidaridad, Playa del Carmen. Sand sculpture contest (theme: The Water) April 22, 9-11:30 a.m. Xcaret to Playa del Carmen race (7km.) April 22, 1:00-2:00 p.m. Prizes will be given by Mayor of Solidaridad, Playa del Carmen. Underwater reef cleaning performed by the divers’ community in the area April 22, 9:00 a.m.-12:00 Turtle nesting sites beach cleaning performed by CEA's turtle staff April 22, 9-11:30 a.m. Click here to learn more about Earth Day or contact Emilio. Upcoming Events May 14-20 is the next VIDAS Clinic. They will be in Tulum on May 14; Playa del Carmen May 15, 16 and 17; Puerto Morelos May 18, 19 and 20. Donations such as towels, collars, leashes and small children's toys may be dropped off at The CEA Center for the VIDAS Clinic. May 19-21 Symposium at The CEA Center. This year's theme is “The Riviera Maya, Scientific Research and a Sustainable Ecology.” July 22-31 is the Maya Riviera Sea Turtle Expedition. Contact Heather to make reservations. Special Thanks CEA would like to thank Ann DiSalvo, photographer and researcher, and Chuck Gertonson, graphic designer and printer, for generously donating copies of their book “Plants of Akumal” which is available at the CEA EcoStore. All proceeds from the sale of the book go directly to CEA. Want to know how you can help? We encourage you to support a program or project that you feel strongly about by making a donation directly to that program. For example, a great way to support the Turtle Protection Program is to Adopt a Turtle; you can do this on-line using your credit card. Also if you are a Frequent Flier and you have extra miles, you can donate them to CEA. And please, tell a friend about the organization. Most CEA Members join thanks to other members telling them about CEA. If you have questions about how you can become more involved, please contact us. Virus Alert Please be aware that there are many computer viruses circulating; some viruses take on the names of Web sites such as ours. To avoid getting a virus, never open any zip file unless you are absolutely sure who it is from and what it contains. To learn more about viruses, click here. Thank you for your continued support of CEA. We list our CEA Members and Contributors on our CEA Friends page. Please take a moment and make sure we have you listed. If you have a story or comment you would like added, please email it to us. 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