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A
Concerned E-mail I've Received:
A
visitor to the website wrote : "What
would a person in Maryland have to do with manatees?They
don't even have manatees in maryland! is this a for real
thing or is this just an gimmick to get peoples hard earned
money.how would we know that this is for real? and how
do we know that a dollar will go to help save the manatee?you
have to admit that this sounds a little weird!I truly
love these creatures and want to help them in any way
I can but I also don't want someone trying to make a profit
at their expense, please don't be offended by this e-mail,but
there are a lot of frauds on this world wide web.............................manatee
lover for real in Florida."
My
Reply :
Thanks
for the note, you've brought up several very good questions
that I bet quite a few people will be having when they
consider buying one of my buttons. Let me try to answer
your concerns, and provide you a little background information
:
I
visited the manatees in Florida as a photographer along
with a video production company three years ago. During
that first trip I took hundreds of photographs on the
manatees at Crystal River and Homosassa Springs - and
had several incredible experiences with the manatees.
When I returned home from Florida, I developed all of
my photos, compiled my journal entries, and decided to
create the website MANATEE (http://www.homesafe.com/manatee)
so that others could learn about these amazing creatures.
The next year I visited the manatees again, and took more
photos.
My
MANATEE website is very popular now, and I have many many
students and other's ask to use my photographs and stories
for school projects and reports. I always say "yes" to
nonprofit use, and with for-profit use, I ask that companies
donate to one of the major manatee protection programs.
(http://www.homesafe.com/manatee/copyright-info.html)
I
also started the MANATEE WATCHERS MAILING LIST which has
over 300 members - from students and manatee watchers,
to expert marine biologists and environmental officials.
So,
you can see, I have been very involved with educating
the public and spreading the word about protecting the
manatee for years - even though I live in Maryland!
So
I have a very popular manatee website, but really no way
of raising money with it. One night I came up with the
idea of selling a special button where $1.00 from every
button sale actually WILL go to manatee rescue and protection
efforts. I added up the costs to do this, found some people
who can manufacture the buttons for me in the quantities
I plan on needing, and decided that it might just work.
I put together a banner ad, and a simple page explaining
the idea, and waited to see if it would work. This was
a week or so ago.
I
do make money by selling these buttons - I don't want
you to think that I am giving away the buttons at a personal
loss. Here's why - I took the photographs, I designed
the button, I (with some help from my family) came up
with the idea of raising money for the manatees by selling
the buttons, and I manage and fulfill the orders. All
of these things take time, energy, and money to accomplish
- and I think you'd agree that it's fair to get paid for
this.
I
appreciate your skepticism! It's healthy to question the
things that at first appear "weird". I hope I've answered
your questions, and you feel at least that I am not trying
to scam anyone.
If
your question was not answered, please e-mail
me and I will try to help.
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