The day of delivery is finally upon us! After spending hours on Saturday night, loading the Uhaul truck and eventually my xB, until 11pm with 65,000 Project 8 donations (although 35+ boxes still did not make it in the uhaul or my car due to the fact we ran out of room).

This is inside my xB, or “the box”…. Lots of boxes in the Box. Ah the Irony…. So anyway, I had loaded it up to the roof of my car, with a small peep hole for my rear view. However, weight and safety restrictions required me to unload several packages. Safety first.

The front passenger side of the car, which became interesting as boxes shifted around during commute. That manila envelope under my purse is filled with all the sweet letters and children illustrations that everyone sent, which are now being displayed in the administration hallways at IMMS.

So both boxes on wheels all loaded up and ready to go! So here we go!!

Goodbye Pensacola! IMMS OR BUST!!!

My view for 3 hours. Honk if you love Craft Hope!

We finally made it!! Safe and Sound! Everyone meet the Project 8 Uhaul Driver and the muscle behind the Shipping Department, my dear husband, Daniel Davion. I couldn’t have manage receiving heavy packages, loading/unloading and Uhaul transportation without his help and support! Thank your for being so patient with me, thank you for not thinking I had gone completely daft, and thank you for surrendering your man cave/garage to the Project, and thank you for taking care of the house, dinner, laundry and everything else, when I was logging in and counting donations. Without your help, well… It would not have been possible…
Many Thanks and Love… xoxoxo – K

The Institute for Marine Mammal Studies!

Let the Private Tour begin:

The Museum. IMMS to the Rescue! The container that you see under the sign, is actually what IMMS uses to aid stranded dolphins and prepare them for transport back to the facility.

Here are some of the many faces you will see at IMMS.

This is a 2 month old baby Horseshoe crab! Adorable!

Getting a little up close and personal with an adult Horseshoe crab at the IMMS Touch Pool.

And…. someone else was quite jealous over the Horseshoe Crab Fanfare…

Meet TJ. Star of the Touch Pool. He loves attention and loves being hand fed shrimp!

Hello Sea Snail…

Horseshoe Crab… and… can you see it…

Take a Look closer….

Can you see it now?

Its a Flounder! Mimi at IMMS informed me that this Flounder was rescued, he was a very dark dark brown color and was not doing well at all. And since being rescued and cared for, he is now healthy and a lovely sandy white! It is so great to see that not only does IMMS care for larger sea animals but small ones too!

Here is a video that I took during the touch pool session. Here is TJ again, his personality really did steal our hearts. The conversation in the background is that TJ is very hungry and wants shrimp, like NOW, and a frantic search was going on for shrimp.

watch?v=l_OMhlKxXV4

Now onto the Rescue Center where all the rescued marine mammals are kept to be examined, cleaned free of oil, and rehabilitated for future release. Here are some photos of recent rescues, now clean.

Several Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtles have been rescued and are ongoing rehabilitation.

This one was camera shy.

There was also a enormous Loggerhead Sea Turtle. He was found North of Chandeleur Sound.

The massive barnacle growths on his shell were quite impressive!

I also happened to catch a really quickie video of one of the rescued Kemp’s Ridleys pictured above. It’s a really quick video since it was a private tour and we were moving very quickly from tank to tank. Sorry its not longer….couldn’t linger very long in the rescue area. But oh, isn’t he just gorgeous!! THIS is the reason for Project 8!! Getting a chance to see where the donations are going to help is amazing!

watch?v=2YFrlR8yLLU

After our private tour, we began to unload the Uhaul and my car. Photos to come. I, myself, did not get to take any photos of that, since I was literally in the back of the Uhaul working on unloading all of the boxes. However one of the IMMS staff members was taking photos of the unloading of the truck, and of Dan and I with the massive mountain of all 65,000 donations. They will be emailing those photos later. As soon as I receive the pictures, you all know I will post those up to share as soon as possible!

Everyone at IMMS were just shell shocked by all of the donations. Lots of tears were brought up to the eyes of everyone there, and words just couldn’t describe the amount of gratitude they felt toward these donations. They were stunned and speechless over the generosity of so many. And that was something amazing to witness and be a part of. I am still amped up about it. And it still gives me chills.

After leaving IMMS, Dan and I dropped off the Uhaul, and headed over to see family, rest and recover for a little bit, drink some Gatorade and ice water in the air conditioning. After we got cooled off and recovered, we hit the road back to Florida, but not before stopping for lunch.

Little did we know that, we would have an wild rukus greedy crowd join us for our picnic lunch.

This lot, did not know the meaning of table manners. tisk tisk. Check out the guy staring directly at me.

After sharing a picnic lunch with our rowdy lunch crew, it was back home to spend quality time with a tube of Icy Hot, my pillow and snuggle in bed. All in a Days Good Work.

Home Sweet Home.

Again…. I want to THANK YOU ALL for the Generous Support, Donations, Words of Inspiration, Supply and Transportation Proceeds, and being a part of Craft Hope. And Thank You Jade for being patient, kind, and so helpful and supportive. This project would not have been possible without ALL OF YOU!!!

GOD BLESS YOU ALL! WITH LOVE – KIMBERLY & DANIEL DAVION

Stay tuned, more Project 8 stories and photos to come… to be continued!