2018 Go Blue Awards Nominees – Business

andrewredharrisfoundation.org/

The Andrew “Red” Harris Foundation (ARHF) mission is to “enhance and protect the marine habitat”. Web pursue our “enhancement” mission by building artificial reefs offshore of northern Palm Beach County and our “protection” mission by encouraging children to love the ocean. The foundation’s efforts to raise money and generate support for protecting our marine environment by building new habitat has helped make many more people aware of what they can do to help. Many local residents and businesses and people from all over the country have contributed to our projects- because they care and we give them a way to get involved.

Our reefs will build local fish populations for the future, but we believe it is also critical to build a new generation of marine environmentalists. We want today’s children to learn to love our oceans, rivers and lakes—and to strive to protect them throughout their lives. If you ask a marine scientist why they chose their occupation or when they first fell in love with the ocean they will likely tell you it happened as a result of childhood experiences.

The foundation believes teaching children to love the ocean will have huge future benefits for the children and for our environment. We need more of our population to see our marine environment as a huge asset that must be protected, and the earlier in their lives they get started, the better.

With those goals in mind, the foundation is donating 11,000 five book sets of the “Professor Clark the Science Shark” third grade STEM readers to every third grade classroom in Florida, a $730,000 donation. The Palm Beach County School Board received their 1000 book sets (5000 books) August 13, 2018. The book series tells the story of a little boy (Andrew) that meets and befriends an orphaned tiger shark pup. The marine animals communicate their problems and needs to the human world through Andrew. Andrew loves his marine friends and shows how deeply he cares for them by organizing reef and beach cleanups and rushing out to help them after a hurricane in book 5. In book 4, “Reada’s Rescue” the marine animals show Andrew a sick turtle and he helps save it by calling the Loggerhead Marinelife Center and transferring the turtle to the rescue boat.

Loggerhead is prominently featured in book 4 with pages in the story and LMC pages in the back of the book. We are working with the Palm Beach School Board’s Elementary Science Supervisor to develop the program for teaching children to love the ocean and for implementing it in every third grade classroom in Palm Beach County (684). The Palm Beach program kicks off in August 2018 for the new school year, and when formally announced will be described as a $65,000 donation.

The donation and environmental education program will be announced statewide in October, 2018 when the foundation and a Palm Beach County School Board representative present it to the annual convention of the Florida Association of Science Supervisors and to the Florida Association of Science Teachers conventions in October, 2018.

The foundation will describe it’s goals in creating the marine environmental education program first to the science supervisors for each county school board in the state and then do the same for the leading science teachers from each of the state’s school boards. The Palm Beach School Board will share the blueprint and experience developed in Palm Beach County for sorting, barcoding and distributing the books to the classrooms, and training the third grade teachers on how to use the books to teach their students to love the ocean and it’s inhabitants.

The foundation has been working on this program for the past 6 months and we are very excited about the prospects for our donation benefitting the marine environment by helping create many, many more marine environmentalists!

The foundation partners with Palm Beach County Environmental Resource Management to build new reefs with four ton concrete “Coral Heads” of our own design and 4-5’ diameter limestone boulders.

The ARHF has raised well over $1 million to fund it’s projects and has deployed 319 reef modules and 1800 tons of boulders since being founded in 2014 including:
– 40 Coral Heads on our first site off Jupiter in 39’ of water in 2015
– 100 Coral Heads and 300 tons of boulders in 58’ on our second site off Jupiter in 2016
– 15 Coral Heads on the Blue Heron Bridge snorkel trail in 2016
– 132 Coral Heads and 1000 tons of boulders on our second site in 2017
– a 17’ tall replica of the Jupiter lighthouse on our second site in 2017
August 17 and 23, 2018 the foundation created a new reef off Juno Beach in 75 feet of water
with 32 Coral Heads and 500 tons of boulders.

Please see the videos on our Facebook page and the attached brochure.

The Andrew “Red” Harris Foundation is a 501C3 non-profit that strives to enhance the marine environment by building artificial reefs and to protect it by encouraging children to love our oceans, rivers and lakes.

In 2018 we deployed two 250 ton boulder reefs and placed 32 of our four ton “Coral Heads” adjacent to them. We also began a significant education initiative in 2018 by donating a 5 book set of the “Professor Clark the Science Shark” series to every third grade classroom in Florida, 55,000 books in all! Children love the story of the little boy (Andrew) who becomes lifelong friends with
an orphaned tiger shark pup. The marine animals communicate their needs through Andrew to the human world. Together they
clean up a reef and a beach, and then help save a sick turtle as they teach Florida children to love the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and our rivers and lakes.

Reefs the Foundation has built include:
– 40 Coral Heads in 39’ of water in 2015
– 100 Coral Heads in 58’ in 2016
– a 300 ton boulder reef in 58’ in 2016
– 15 Coral Heads on the Snorkel Trail in 2016
– 132 Coral Heads in 58’ in 2017
– four 250 ton boulder reefs in 58’ in 2017
– a 17’ tall replica of the Jupiter lighthouse
– 32 Coral Heads in 75’ in 2018
– two 250 ton boulder reefs in 75’ in 2018

The Foundation is 100% volunteer and receives tax deductible funding from individuals, businesses and foundations from all over the country. We hope our efforts to “enhance and protect the marine environment” incent water lovers, young and old, to join the fight to save our beautiful oceans, rivers and lakes. We invite you to contact us and find out how you can help!

Guy Harvey Magazine feature article excerpt, Summer 2017 Edition, “REEFS WITH A CAUSE” When you work on a noble cause, you will usually find success. That is certainly the case with the Andrew “Red” Harris Foundation, an organization that was born out of tragedy but today has gained the attention of thousands of water lovers for building innovative, artificial reefs. They’ve even caught the eye of country music superstar Kenny Chesney.

Andrew Harris was an inspirational young man who died at age 26 when he was struck by a boat while snorkeling on June 8, 2014.
Loved and admired by many, Andrew had begun a career in the insurance business and had found great success As a youngster, Andrew was always a gifted athlete. In high school he had the distinction of being named to the Palm Beach Post’s All Area team in both golf and basketball on the same day. And he was voted MVP of the Jupiter High School basketball team his senior year. Raised on the water in the Jupiter area, he loved to fish, snorkel, scuba dive and just be out on the ocean. When he thought about college, he decided to apply to only one: Florida State University, a school he loved dearly. But, his early attempts to get in were denied. Andrew continued to pursue his dream and graduated from FSU with honors.

“June 7, 2014 was the happiest day that Andrew and Ryan, our younger son, spent together,” Scott said. “It was highlighted by Ryan being drafted and getting a nice bonus from the Boston Red Sox. The next day was our saddest.” Since that dreadful day,
Andrew’s mother and father and many of their friends have worked together to honor his memory by building reefs for snorkeling,
diving and fishing. The Andrew “Red” Harris Foundation has made it their mission to enhance the waters he loved to help ensure
the long-term health of the oceans and to assure that he will not be forgotten. They’ve held golf and tennis tournaments many other events to raise money to build reefs. The foundation also sells its own shirts through their website. Understandably, Andrew’s mom and dad, Scott and Martha Harris, are the driving force behind the foundation. They were determined to do something in Andrew’s memory but they weren’t sure where to begin. “We started out with college scholarships,” Scott said, “but didn’t get much interest from local schools. It’s a very crowded space. Then we started to think about Andrew’s hobbies like golf, fishing and diving and we decided that artificial reefs would be perfect! “Andrew loved fishing and diving and we thought, ‘how hard could building artificial reefs be’,” Scott says with a laugh.

If getting the foundation cranked up was difficult, the Harris’s never let it show. They began the organization in August, just two months after the accident, and by November they had formed a viable plan to build and deploy hand-made, custom concrete modules. Nine months later, they sunk 40 artificial reefs and the next summer, in August 2016, they deployed 100 more – 50 pyramids and 35 custom-designed “Coral Heads.” They also put down 15 prototype concrete block reefs. A few months later, in November 2016, they placed 15 “Lagoon Coral Head” modules at the Blue Heron Bridge Snorkel Trail at Phil Foster Park in Palm Beach County. To date, the Andrew “Red” Harris Foundation has 155 reefs deployed and another 134 under construction.

“The Palm Beach County ERM staff has been instrumental in the whole process,” Harris said. “They have guided me since day one and have been great partners. Their knowledge and expertise has really helped us to achieve our goals. “If building reefs began an emotionally healing process for the Harris family, it also had the side benefit of advancing the science of artificial reefs. Placing
many of their reef modules on a site where an ancient natural reef once existed has been clearing the smothering sand from the
underlying bedrock and re-exposing the natural sea floor. “It’s more important where you build an artificial reef than what you build it with,” Harris said. “And we think we have the best possible site: thin sand over flat bedrock in shallow water with good visibility. It’s no surprise that 100 percent of the money raised by the foundation goes to reef building. And, so far, they’ve brought in more than $900,000, some of which has come in the form of grants, fundraisers and donations of labor.

For example, Palm Beach County pays for deploying the reefs, CCA and Building Conservation Trust have been major donors, Morgan and Eklund donated the subbottom survey, the Wantman Group donated the engineering and Kimley-Horn made festival display boards. Jupiter Dive Center contributed funds and boats for deployment viewing. Of course, the Harris family itself has also been a major donor. “We are not just asking others to contribute, we are putting our own money and time in,” Harris said. “It’s important to us, and our community increasingly sees the benefits as our projects move from theoretical to actual and our dreams become real as the thriving new reefs we build help Jupiter’s marine environment”. As the foundation continues to do good and do well, more positive things are happening. Now, country music superstar Kenny Chesney and his No Shoes Nation have pledged their support. Chesney has partnered with ENGEL Coolers to create No Shoes Reefs.

The goals are to raise awareness and funding to protect precious coral reefs, which are vital for aquatic ecosystems to thrive. Limited edition “No Shoes Reefs” shirts and hats are available and a portion of the proceeds go directly to the Andrew “Red” Harris Foundation to assist in artificial reef building and deployment. “Our long term goal is to honor Andrew’s memory by seeing the foundation become a self-sustaining organization for building and advancing the science of artificial reefs,” Harris said. Anyone interested can sponsor a reef module for $5,000 or an entire boulder pile reef for $20,000. Three of the boulder piles are going in this year. Contributions of any amount are welcome.