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Remember the plastic manatees? Jean L. Fleschute tells us what happened with them.

For Immediate Release: January 21, 2004

Thanks to Robert Smythe and Mum Puppettheatre, two children from the Swarthmore-Rutledge School (SRS) in Delaware County exceeded all expectations in their efforts to raise funds for their Manatee Rescue Campaign. Isabel Diaz-Barriga and Gabriel Kroch, two third graders at SRS, wanted to educate their school community and raise money for the Save the Manatee Club.

When Robert Smythe, artistic director of Mum, learned about their efforts, he donated the 15 dozen miniature, plastic manatees that had been left over from Mum's own efforts to fundraise for a theatre project. Gabe and Isa sold the manatees for $1 each, which spurred on their fundraising project far beyond what they had expected. Their original fundraising goal was to raise $20, the amount needed to adopt one manatee, but with the generous donation from Mum, they raised $335, enough to adopt 16 manatees. The donated miniature manatees helped increase SRS students' interest in manatees and awareness of the plight of this endangered species of which only 3,000 remain in the wild.

This is an example of how Mum has reached beyond the artistic community and had a broader impact in the world. Isa and Gabe are grateful to Mum for its generous support.

Sincerely,
Jean L. Fleschute

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