Endowments- A Lasting Legacy
Leave a lasting legacy to the turtles! Gifts to the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center's endowments provide a permanent source of income while allowing the principal to grow and thus sustain the organization for years to come. The funds are invested in perpetuity, with a designated percentage of the earned income available for use on an annual basis. Strong endowments allow us to continue important sea turtle rehabilitation and conservation programs in the face of ever increasing costs.
"For the Love of Sea Turtles" is our General Endowment. Income from this Endowment sustains general operational costs, paying for the food, medicine, and care our sick and injured sea turtle patients need in order to get well and be released back to the wild!The 2008 establishment of the endowment "For the Love of Sea Turtles" is the sea turtle hospital's investment for the future - a permanent source of income.
The "Lauren Sigmon Memorial Intern Scholarship" Endowment is directed towards internships and related educational programs. Currently, income from the fund supports interns through an "Intern Emergency Fund" to pay for unexpected costs (e.g., doctor visits, emergency car repairs) and enable students to continue their internship with KBSTRRC. When fully funded, income from this Endowment will provide one or more scholarships in order to expand access to KBSTRRC's internship opportunites.
Most interns at the sea turtle hospital volunteer for a summer. Lauren Sigmon was the first fall-through-spring intern at the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center, devoting eight months to caring for sick and injured loggerhead, green, and Kemp’s ridley sea turtles. Along the way she learned about non-profit work – making wonderful things happen with just a shoestring budget.
Lauren grew up in North Carolina and spent summer family vacations at Holden Beach, NC, where she first encountered sea turtles. Like many North Carolina beach communities, Holden Beach has an active turtle watch program that protects nesting sea turtle mothers and their hatchlings.
After witnessing the mothers’ late-night nesting visits and the excitement of a hundred or more hatchlings boiling up from the sand and heading to the water, Lauren was hooked. She studied marine biology at Duke University with the intention of making sea turtle conservation her life’s work.
Lauren died unexpectedly in May 2007. In her memory, her parents Allen and Patrice have established the Lauren Sigmon Internship Fund within the sea turtle hospital's endowment. The fund will help future volunteer interns who have financial need, as well as support educational programs at the sea turtle hospital.
Most interns at the sea turtle hospital volunteer for a summer. Lauren Sigmon was the first fall-through-spring intern at the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center, devoting eight months to caring for sick and injured loggerhead, green, and Kemp’s ridley sea turtles. Along the way she learned about non-profit work – making wonderful things happen with just a shoestring budget.
Lauren grew up in North Carolina and spent summer family vacations at Holden Beach, NC, where she first encountered sea turtles. Like many North Carolina beach communities, Holden Beach has an active turtle watch program that protects nesting sea turtle mothers and their hatchlings.
After witnessing the mothers’ late-night nesting visits and the excitement of a hundred or more hatchlings boiling up from the sand and heading to the water, Lauren was hooked. She studied marine biology at Duke University with the intention of making sea turtle conservation her life’s work.
Lauren died unexpectedly in May 2007. In her memory, her parents Allen and Patrice have established the Lauren Sigmon Internship Fund within the sea turtle hospital's endowment. The fund will help future volunteer interns who have financial need, as well as support educational programs at the sea turtle hospital.
