In 2008, The Georgia Sea Turtle Center (GSTC) embarked on a mission. In an effort to prevent excess waste, keep our soils & oceans healthy, and get kids involved in and benefit from the process, Scute’s Scribblers were born!
Scute’s Scribblers is a crayon recycling program initiated by the GSTC’s Education Department.
Just one year ago in April, we put out a call to schools far and wide to start collecting their old, worn and broken crayons. What a response we received! Teachers and students alike from elementary, middle and high schools, stationed boxes in front offices, classrooms and lunchrooms to collect the crayon cast-offs. Initially, 80 pounds of crayons were gathered and made ready for a new life.
The pounds of donated crayons were peeled, melted to molten wax and reshaped into unique sea turtle shaped crayons! From there, crayons were packaged & labeled. Using compostable cellulose bags and recycled labels, crayons were packed individually and in 5-packs to be featured as a donation purchase in the GSTC gift shop. Proceeds from crayon donations are deposited into a special account, dubbed Scute’s Scholarship Fund, which provides tuition for students to experience a GSTC field trip that they otherwise could not afford.

One particularly zealous student, 9-year-old Lorin Crair, struck out on her own mission to collect as many crayons as possible. Lorin, only 1 of 1350 students at Sabal Palm Elementary School in Jacksonville, FL, began collecting crayons in January mid-way through her third grade year. She designed and created ‘turtle pots,’ crayon collecting buckets which she placed in individual classrooms.
At the recent Nest Fest event on Jekyll Island, Lorin, along with her parents, delivered the 88.2 pounds of crayons collected in only 6 short months. Lorin has no thoughts of stopping there! She recently placed a turtle pot at a local Italian restaurant that provides crayons to entertain waiting customers. Her goal is to collect over 100 pounds for the 2009-2010 school year. As a thank you to Lorin for her hard work, the Georgia Sea Turtle Center staff presented her with a plush Scute, the sea turtle mascot for whom the crayons are named and a Scute’s Scribbler in her favorite color, blue.
In the three months since Scute’s Scribblers debuted in the Gift Shop, Scute’s Scholarship Fund has received donations for over 370 crayons. We’re having a tough time keeping up with the demand! The good news is that two groups of students have already benefited from the program. Special needs students from Needwood Middle School in Brunswick, GA, had the opportunity to visit the Center where they saw Scute’s Ocean Adventure puppet show and visited with the sea turtle patients. A second group of ‘Young Women in Science’ from the Brunswick YMCA participated in Sea Turtle Rescue 911, a critical thinking program for high school students. They also had the opportunity to see women working in the science field ‘in action’ – Educators at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center.
With such an influx of crayons and so few staff, we recruited a little help! Yesterday, the Elderhostel’s Intergenerational Camp, a summer programs for grandparents & their grandkids, participated in a crayon peeling marathon. For one hour, 18 adults & 13 children sliced, peeled and sorted crayons in record time. Over 25 pounds of castoff crayons are now ready for the next phase of their recycled life. 
Do you have crayons you’d like to donate to the Center’s efforts? Send your PEELED crayons to :
The Georgia Sea Turtle Center
214 Stable Road
Jekyll Island, GA 31527
Attention: Education Department
~Kelly O’Keefe, Educator