Katie Murray

Congratulations to Kristopher Wagner for being the winner of our challenge!!! Kristopher, please check your email for a message from us and we can figure out a date to get you your penguin painting!!

Thank you to everyone who participated- even without a penguin painting to prove it, please know you truly made a difference!

Last day - get those last few points!! Thank you so much to everyone who participated! We will be announcing the winner of the penguin painting tomorrow, August 1st.

Collectively we have kept 252 plastic containers, 278 pieces of cutlery, 263 plastic straws, and 115 plastic bottles from entering a landfill. Four documentaries have been watched, three waste audits have been conducted, and a community event has been hosted! Not only that, but 15 hours have been volunteered in the name of plastic reduction and 645 minutes have been spent learning about the perils of single-use plastic. I hope we continue to carry these behaviors past July, and wish everyone the best of luck in their single-use plastic minimization endeavors. 

3 more days to log, Zoo Friends!! Let's finish strong :)

We're nearing the end, Zoo Friends! It's great to see you still out there posting and enjoying the challenge. Don't forget that if you don't remember to log in one day, you have the ability to go back two days and still log your action items! Overall, the ZooTampa team (this team and staff & volunteers combined) is #13 out of 386 organizations- that's FANTASTIC! Let's see if we can move the needle in this last week! 

Just ordered my first bamboo toothbrush using a coupon provided by this challenge! This will be my new travel toothbrush :)

Don't get down on yourself if you can't accomplish one of your goals- perhaps find a do-able alternative! While I wasn't able to eat-in today as planned (and got some unintended disposable plastic), I did make the switch to eat vegetarian at lunch and skip a dish I would normally choose to have meat in. While it's not a plastic reduction, I'm hoping it helped balance out my day and still has a net-positive impact on the planet. Small changes go a long way.

Happy first day of the Plastic Free EcoChallenge, everyone! Thank you for joining the ZooTampa Friends team, we're so happy to have you! Don't forget you can invite your friends and earn points in the process. So far today I've: brought my reusable water bottle to work, carried a reusable cup for iced coffee (in case I need a pick-me-up later), and plan on eating-in somewhere for lunch today to avoid unnecessary to-go packaging. How are YOU starting the challenge?

It's so great to see this team grow! Please feel free to invite your friends & family (you'll get points!) and spread the word about the challenge. Looking forward to getting started with all of you!