FLAGLER BEACH, Fla. – Amidst rows of glass teeming with Flagler Beach artifacts, voices were heard reciting information and faces intently watched the instructors in their corners. On Wednesday, the Flagler Beach Historical Museum hosted a group of children to learn from three instructors on surfing, sea turtles and life guarding.
James Fiske, one of the team members at the Flagler Beach Historical Museum, was dressed in pirate clothing for the day, eager to explain his role at the museum in general.
“Normally, I’m James Fiske, but today I’m Captain Krusty Krabbe,” said Fiske.
“What I do normally during when I’m here is I go through the museum as a docent. I let people know what we have here at the museum and when we don’t have people here, I’m making sure that all of the shelves are stocked with everything that we need. We do have a small giftshop here. We pretty much operate on donations, so we take care of the visitors. All of our faces here are volunteers. We’ve got a fantastic group of volunteers and I’m very proud of them,” he said.
Divided into stations, Fiske was very excited to share what the kids were learning about at the museum.
“We’ve got some great stuff going on today. We’ve got Heather. She’s talking about some of the surfers, and the national champion surfers that we had here. She does surfing herself and she’s going over how to surf and all,” he said, indicating the surfing exhibit.
“In the back, we’ve got Lori from the Turtle Patrol with her group,” he added, where expert Lori Ottlein, the unofficial queen of the local turtle patrol, was holding court.
“She’s going over sea turtle nesting season and what the Turtle Patrol does as far as checking on the turtles, making sure their nests are safe and making sure no one has gotten into them, including animals.”
“Over here we have Tom, he’s with the lifeguards here and he’s the one doing CPR with the children. He’s having them actually do CPR on one of the little dummies and they’re just having a great time,” shared Fiske as Tom Gillin, head of the city’s ocean rescue team, led the group.
Listen Up Mateys
For his own lesson of the day, Captain Krabbe talked about the prehistoric animals found around Flagler Beach and Daytona Beach, including mastodons and mammoths. Passing around a tooth and examining the vertebrae from the animals, the young audience was enthralled as he talked about the program’s unique points.
“It’s free, number one. Number two, we’re talking about history, we’re talking about life on a beach, especially here in Flagler Beach. What people can encounter as far as sea turtles, what people can encounter as far as rip tides, they can learn about the surfers. And then we’ll be ending it with the prehistoric animals that used to be here. A lot of people come here and think mastodons and mammoths were never here, well, yes they were.”
The parents were as enraptured by the different instructors as much as their children, watching the boards, gear and demonstrations with keen eyes.
“I brought my kids to this cool history club. I think it added a lot. We homeschool, but I love doing stuff like this with them, local history especially,” said Keira Hardy.
