by Kent Jennings Brockwell
Staff Writer
If Bonnie Upright looks tired this week, she has a good reason. She has been wrangling and selling manatees all weekend.
Upright, the “executive sea cow wrangler” and community development director for the Otis Smith Kids Foundation, has actually been coordinating efforts regarding the foundation’s Sea Cows for the Kids project for most of the past year.
But now it’s almost over — all of the decorative sea cows have been auctioned off and the sale raised more than $133,000 for the foundation.
Though there are a few loose ends to take care of regarding some of the manatees, Upright said all of the sea cows have gone to good homes. Though many will not be as prominently placed as they have been for the past several months, she said you still might see a manatee or two around in different parts of the city and state.
“There are a handful that will be left out and about,” she said.
One proud new sea cow owner is giving her manatee a public home by placing it in Atlantic Beach’s Russell Park while another owner is sending their manatee to be displayed in Manatee County, Upright said.
“Many are going are going to people’s homes,” she said. “Many people that bought them have homes on the river or a lake where they will display their sea cow.”
Only 30 of the 43 manatees were auctioned off to private buyers because some of the sponsors decided to buy their own manatees. One of those sponsors, Coggin Automotive Group, has decided to donate its sea cow to the Neptune Beach Elementary School, where it should fit in perfectly due to the school’s nickname — the Manatees.
Another sponsor-purchased manatee, MPS Group’s “Sea Cow We Shine!” at Independent Square, will be placed in the building’s second floor art gallery.
Even though several of the manatees were stolen or vandalized during their downtown deployment, Upright said all were recovered and repaired before the auction. The manatee vandalism gained a lot of public attention and Upright said that awareness is what saved the rest of the fiberglass sculptures.
“The vandalism tapered off after the first couple of months,” she said. “People began to realize that this project was for charity and they began to take a little bit of pride for what was out on the streets and in their neighborhoods.”
Upright said she has learned a lot from the sea cow experience and has picked up some new ideas if the foundation ever does a similar project. One idea is putting a tracking system on each of the sculptures or having an advanced form of surveillance.
She said potential design flaws will also be looked at closer for future projects. One problem with the manatee design was that the curved tail held a small pool of water after it rained. Upright said it wasn’t too much of a problem, though, because the Downtown Ambassadors and a team of volunteers helped to dry up the manatees after downpours.
Though she wouldn’t say if the foundation has another manatee-type fund raiser planned for the future, she did say to “stay tuned.”