Although I am a writer, words cannot express how grateful I am for the hundreds of enthusiastic kids and parents who came out to celebrate the Summer Reading Kickoff, STEAM DAY, and the Book Release Event of I AM NOT A FISH! at the West Osceola Branch Library on Saturday! I am equally in debt to the incredibly gracious support of Emilie Johnsen at 4ocean who donated several dozen of their world changing bracelets for the event, and the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, whose remarkably knowledgeable and friendly representative, Rob Bean, entertained and educated the nearly 400 people in attendance about the world famous aquarium. Thanks to Books-a-Million for so efficiently selling nearly a book a minute during the entire event. And of course, I owe a whale-sized thanks to Lisa Jones, the entire Osceola Library System staff, and the close friends of mine who tirelessly put the whole event together and volunteered to make it happen.
Whether you are one of the first 30 people who was able to snag an actual 4ocean bracelet or not, I encourage you to check out this truly remarkable company. I believe in the work that these fine people do so much that this most recent book of mine was dedicated specifically to them. In short, 4ocean is a company based entirely upon the cleaning (and preventing) of pollution from the world's oceans and coastlines. Every bracelet sold promises to "pull a pound" of trash from the ocean. And I can attest to the fact these people do what they say, and have literally "pulled" over 4 million pounds of trash--mostly plastic--from the ocean in just over two years.
4ocean always has a standard "blue" bracelet for sale, but every month they offer a Limited Edition color that supports different causes. The yellow bracelets given away at the event was the Sea Bird bracelet.
I encourage you to check out the @4ocean Facebook page at by clicking the link, or visiting their website at: https://4ocean.com/ to find out more about this world changing company.
