This is a presentation I made for our Board of Education. The purpose was to give show them the highlights of our trip to San Juan Island, Washington, and to show them some of the videos that were created of the Orca whales that reside in the waters near SJI.

1. Why did students from THTV travel to the San Juan Islands in Northern Washington this summer? This was a culminating activity for our environmental video theme from the 2009 - 2010 school year. Videos that had been produced prior to the trip included: Rouge River Energy Conservation Recycling Earth Day

2. We took the environmental issue and expanded it beyond our backyard, beyond our community. In fact, we expanded it all the way across the country.

3. Angelica Martinez, Jessica Rone, Rachel Wright

4. Richard Summersett, Molly Durkacs, Dylan Zalewski, Jared Kangas

5. Ian Wolfe, Lexii Ialungo, Matt Davis

6. Zane Thomas, Doug Oliver, Michael Clayton

7. Kara & Joe Clayton, Sue Carver, Jeff Madigan

9. There are just 87 members that make up the Southern Resident Community of Orcas that live in the Salish Sea. We wanted to be part of their survival by making the world aware of the daily threats to their lives.

10. How can THTV best provide stewardship for the Orcas? By doing what we do best! Producing videos to share with the world.

15. WHAT exactly did we Do on our trip? Lots of time at Lime Kiln Light House because the Whales swim right into shore on a regular basis.

16. Ian can practically reach out and touch this whale!

19. We had two private chartered boat trips with THE BEST Marine Naturalists in all of Friday Harbor!

20. We spent a full day with documentary filmmaker, and National Geographic journalist, Suzanne Chisholm.

23. The Whale Museum

25. Developed a greater appreciation for nature.

27. They have developed a greater appreciation for their world beyond their own backyard.

28. Lasting Impact We will continue to develop more videos, including a longer documentary about the trip. The travelers from the trip chose to adopt a L41 (Mega) for the year to support The Whale Museum. Videos will be distributed to organizations such as Orca Network, The Whale Museum, and we hope to High School Science programs as well.

29. The films that we produce may have an impact on our peers just as Saving Luna did for us.--Matt Davis There are hundreds of filmmakers…who have done the exact same thing we are doing now; making short films to try and bring an untold story to people who have no knowledge of the topic. The only differences between them and us is that we are high school and don't get paid to do it. We are making these videos out of our own drive to do so . --Doug Oliver That's my job as a media maker--to spread awareness to what's going on with the Orcas. There are so many little things that we can do that will help them, but those that weren't on the trip might not know that. It's our job to inform them.--Lexii Ialungo

30. Now we can take what we learned from the naturalists and Suzanne (Chisholm) and share it with everyone. To say that our trip to San Juan was awesome is an understatement; it was a true life changing experience and has opened my eyes to so much more… we as humans need to take action to fix the mess we created.--Jessica Rone The naturalists we talked to all said that educating people about the whales is the most important thing. We media makers can make a HUGE impact by just making people aware of what is going on.--Richard Summersett, Jr. Before this trip I had no idea about whales and what was going on with them… This trip educated me in not only what is happening to them but what we can do as people to stop it (further harm).--Rachel Wright

31. After spending just one day on the island seeing whales and learning about the major threats to the whales the entire tone of my trip changed, it was no longer about visiting. It turned into learning about the whales and trying to gather information to spread the word for a species that can't vocalize to humans that we are causing all of these problems for them and they need us to fix it.--Angelica Martinez I have learned so much from this trip from information about the whales such as the specifics of how they communicate and the toxins that affect them, to what we personally can do on a small scale to help make the lives of these gentle giants less dangerous.--Dylan Zalewski

32. It’s Mega! --> Thank You! Questions for Kids?