Lisa Polite makes regular donations to the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center on Topsail Island in North Carolina. Lisa Polite is the Program Manager of Rainbow of Hope, a service of Cape Counseling Services in New Jersey.

1. By Lisa Polite Rainbow of Hope

2. Lisa Polite makes regular donations to the
Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and
Rehabilitation Center on Topsail Island in
North Carolina. Lisa Polite is the Program
Manager of Rainbow of Hope, a service of
Cape Counseling Services in New Jersey.

3. During mid-May through August, female sea
turtles come ashore to lay about 120 eggs
each. They open around 60 days later. The
hatchlings move instinctively to the
sea, trying to avoid predators on the beach
and in the ocean. Their goal is to reach the
seaweed rafts of the Sargasso Sea, where
they reach maturity.

4. The rescue facility assists injured and ill
turtles that need rehabilitation. A hydraulic
system pumps in water from the nearby
sound and heats it to 75 degrees in the
winter.

5. Karen Beasley led a group of volunteers to
establish the center in 1996. They monitored
the island’s 26-mile coastline for nests and
safely returned many hatchlings to the sea.
Completed in 1997, the facility moved into its
permanent quarters. Visiting hours are from 2
p.m. to 4 p.m. in June through August, except
Wednesdays and Sundays.