April 13

Interns, Artie Ahr & Reese Rechnitz clown around.

Girl Scouts learn proper excavating of artifacts.

Doug explains the cave map from Apopka Blue.

Amy & some Girl Scouts communicating with Terrence

Trash collected from the Apopka Blue.

We Declare Apopka Blue is Clean!

Sunday, April 13, 2003

The team met again today at Apopka Blue sink at 8:30 am. They enjoyed a fabulous McDonalds breakfast followed by preparing for the day’s events. A little later in the morning a film crew from WMFE, channel 24 from Orlando, arrived on the scene. Emmy award winning producer and Cambrian Foundation dive team member Bob Giguere led his film crew in capturing the events on video for a local program, New Florida that is a state wide magazine program on PBS.

Several troops of Girl Scouts participated today earning different badges that help them progress through the scouting program. Artie led one group in learning about archaeology. The girls learned about setting datum points, measuring the distance from that point to the site, and taking a compass heading. They learned about documenting all information on a special slate. Digging in the site takes special care. The girls learned how to lightly skim the surface of the dirt with the shovel and sift to find the artifact. After recovering “artifacts” from their site, they cleaned them with brushes and documented where the objects were found in the site.

Doug Chapman led a group in learning about the Apopka Blue cave. He reviewed a map of the system that he helped make, and explained the map markings to them. Doug explained about passages, rooms, flow, and how this cave relates to the surrounding aquifer system. Amy led all of the girls in communicating with Terrence underwater. Again today he wore the full face mask with communication device. He used a drop camera, supplied by Sartek Industries, so the kids could see inside the cave. They were able to speak to him via a microphone and ask questions about what they saw.

In the afternoon two groups of divers entered the cavern again to remove more trash. About four hours were spent today hauling debris out. They found golf balls, metal poles, a turn table, a computer circuit board, batteries and lots of other interesting things.

Team Apopka:

  • Anna Olecka, Project Director
  • Artie Ahr
  • Jeff Bauer
  • Doug Chapman
  • Amy Giannotti
  • Bob Giguere
  • James Hurley
  • Keith Mille
  • Renee Power
  • Reese Rechnitz
  • Leon Sturtz
  • Allison Tysall
  • Terrence Tysall

This proved to be an exceptional weekend. We truly hope the Girl Scouts gained some knowledge about why we want to protect our aquifer system. They all agreed they don’t like all of that garbage in the drinking water!! A great time was had by all and we truly appreciate Mark Miller and the City of Apopka, Florida allowing us to fulfill our mission of education.


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