MATTAPOISETT— Three fifth graders have started a Turtle Club at school to help raise funds for sea turtles that need treatment or need to live in captivity permanently. On Friday they held their first fundraiser, a hot cocoa sale.

Gabriel Connors, and Austin Scully had the idea to start the club at first, with Ryan Gordon joining in shortly after. The three were inspired by Scully’s dream to be a marine biologist when he grows up.

“It’s wintertime, not summertime, so we decided that we should do not cocoa, not lemonade,” Connors said.

When other kids would use their free time in school to play or socialize, the three put their heads together to plan the turtle fundraiser.

“We have been planning this for weeks, whenever we had extra time in school.” Scully said.

The young leaders had to decide how much to charge for hot cocoa at the Dec. 14 fundraiser. They decided that the hot chocolate should be a dollar, with extra toppings such as chocolate chips, whipped cream, marshmallows or candy cane bits costing an extra 25 cents.

The club has about ten members, many of which helped with designing the poster displayed prominently at the sale. 

Featured on the poster is Montel, a sea turtle at the Turtle Hospital in Florida that one of the boys made a donation to “adopt.” The club now gets regular updates on how Montel is doing. 

Montel is missing two flippers, and an eye as the result of a shark attack, getting caught in a fishing line, tumors, and getting hit by a boat. He cannot be released back into the wild.

The money raised from the group’s first fundraiser will go both to the Turtle Hospital and to a more local organization, the National Marine Life Center in Buzzards Bay.

The three have also inspired a classmate to want to start a similar club for dolphins.