As someone whose middle school nickname was “Turtle”, I’m very excited to partner with the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County for 2022 Summer Reading and commit to help save Blanding’s turtles! It may have been an unfortunate hair style choice that earned me the nickname, but I decided they could call me a lot worse things—it was sixth grade, after all. I chose to embrace the name. I had a gym shirt made with a turtle picture on the front and the word turtle emblazed across the back, and I wore it proudly for P.E. every day.
I didn’t realize at the time that it was the beginning of a personal fascination with turtles, and what is now an extensive collection of turtle statues and ornaments made of wood, vinyl, glass, ceramic, plastic, and metal. It’s amazing how a collection like that grows! People learn about your collection and then they give you a new turtle every chance they get, and over the years the collection grows until you have more figurines and ornaments than you can display in your home and office combined! So, when the DuPage County Forest Preserve presented a program at the Glen Ellyn Rotary Club some years ago about their efforts to save the Blanding’s turtles in our area and the Adopt a Blanding’s Turtle program , I was intrigued. I took home a brochure and begged my family to stop buying turtles for me and instead consider adopting a Blanding’s turtle.
In 2018, my daughters made me the proud adoptive parent of turtle #17-027. I received a plush turtle, a birth certificate that included the turtle’s length, weight, and birth date, and the opportunity to name her. Lily, formerly known as turtle #17-027, was a fabulous gift, and I continue to receive updates about the Blanding’s turtle head-start program .
Please join us this summer for an exciting, fun-filled summer reading program! If you don’t have a long-held interest in turtles like I do, there is still a lot to explore. If you have questions about any of the information above, or anything else about the library, please email me or phone 630-790-6760.