SIESTA BEACH — While many of us take a break from school during the month of March, not at Siesta Beach, class is in session. It’s the 21st year of Beach University.
Before dipping into the water this month, Sarasota County is asking visitors to dip into the classroom.
“It’s a great way to find out about all things beaches, it’s really about preservation and conservation of this great ecosystem along the coastline,” said Jonathan Poyner, Sarasota County Siesta Beach Manager.
Poyner said when it comes to caring for the county’s 35 miles of pristine coastline everyone needs to work together. So, every Thursday throughout the month of March Beach University offers free classes on everything from wildlife, to water quality, to native plants.
The classes take place at 9:30 a.m. under the beach pavilion right next to the sand.
“What better place can you be right,” said Poyner. “Siesta Key was just awarded number four in the world and number one in the country by Trip Advisor and that’s really voted on by the people who travel.”
Each class is taught by local experts, like county Wildlife Specialist Allison Moran, who focused her lesson on sea turtles and shore birds.
“I grew up on the beach in New Jersey, but I’ve been here for quite a while, and I don’t ever remember having an outdoor classroom up there,” said Moran. “And to be able to talk about our unique sea turtle population in this setting is really spectacular, we have the highest density of nesting sea turtles on the gulf coast.”
Classes range in size from 30 to 100 people. Some of them live just a few minutes away, like Kathy and Doug Sweet.
“Education is power and if we can learn about things, we can save things, and prevent our human ways of destroying things, because the beauty is why we are all here,” said Kathy.
While several others in attendance are here on vacation, like the Baillargeon family, from St. Louis.
“I think it’s really important for us to know about the ecology, the environment, our sweet dear children are going to be inheriting this world so I really want them to be good stewards of it,” said Melody Baillargeon.
"I'm not a drag on the system."
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