$35

Sunday, May 20th

12:30 pm to 2:30 pm

Painting with a Twist Studio - Melbourne

702 E New Haven Ave 

Melbourne, FL 32901

Painting, wine, beer, and all for a good cause? Yes, yes and yes! It's a new spin on Painting with a Twist - Painting with a Purpose. Painting With A Twist-Melbourne will be hosting a class to benefit the Marine Resources Council. Bring your own wine or beer and a team of instructors will guide you through the steps to paint the dolphin pictured at left. Bring your friends or a date!

Click here to register!

Join us in our discovery of the Indian River Lagoon!

Open to children ages 8 to 11.

Session 1: June 4-8 from 9 a.m to 1 p.m.

Session 2: June 18-22 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The Lagoon Castaway Summer Camp is designed to immerse campers in a Lagoon experience that includes a variety of hands-on learning activities, including:

Click here to register!

Do you love working with kids and have a passion for science? We need enthusiastic leaders to help guide our campers through our MRC Summer Camp from June 4th to 8th and from June 18th to 22nd. Help us inspire the next generation to become stewards of the environment!

We are in need of volunteers with boats to transport our campers and camp counselors to a Spoil Island in the Lagoon. We will need the boats on June 6th for Session 1 and June 20th for Session 2 of the Summer Camp. On these days, campers will be planting mangroves and learn how to test specific water quality parameters of the Lagoon, such as salinity, pH and turbidity.

Contact Kate Zehnder for more information.

MRC and Applied Ecology Inc are working with Brevard County to investigate the extent that groundwater contaminated with wastewater is impacting the Indian River Lagoon. Nutrients such as nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) are discharged from septic tanks, leaking wastewater infrastructure, and reuse irrigation water. The study initiated in Turkey Creek will help refine groundwater pollutant load estimates, inform priority areas for wastewater upgrades, and evaluate retrofit projects.

The line graph above compares nitrogen concentrations in three communities and a natural area. The red line show nitrogen concentrations in the septic tank community, the orange line is the sewered community that has reuse irrigation water, the purple links is the sewered community and the green line is a natural area. After ten monthly sampling events, it is clear that septic tanks are not the only wastewater related problems we have and hooking septic tanks to sewer may not be the easy answer. But, this is only one example. We will be expanding this study this year, adding 10-11 more areas this year to see if the same relationship exists.

Applied research like this is important to guide strategies, before investing millions in sewage and infrastructure upgrades. Policy and action requires science to guide directives and evaluate success. Throwing money into the lagoon without knowing whether it will work is wasteful and irresponsible. Thank you Brevard County for doing the science to support the actions!

Adam was born right here in Melbourne, Florida, which fostered his love for all things water, including boating, fishing and swimming. His family moved to Connecticut for five years, after which they moved back to Melbourne where Adam finished high school. He attended Florida Gulf Coast University to study Marine Sciences and Geology. Adam also works with Florida Custom Aquatic, designing, building and maintaining water features, such as koi ponds and waterfalls, along with lake management and fish stocking. Adam's personal motto, "you get out what you put in," can be seen in the work that he does for both Florida Custom Aquatic and MRC. Thank you for all your hard work and go-getter attitude, Adam!

From now until May 26th, use your reusable shopping bags the next time you shop at Lucky's, and they'll give you a wooden dime to donate towards MRC. At the end of the quarter, they'll double the amount raised!