Thursday, October 3 Caleb Ralph and his “Pollution Patrol” group in Mrs. Replogle’s Interpersonal Relationships class put on a hat day fundraiser for the class’s lead4change program. Replogle said “they are making a difference by helping educate the community about the endangered coral reef species.” The money Caleb Ralph and his group raised will go to a non-profit organization called Coral Reef Alliance. 

The CRA (Coral Reef Alliance), according to their site they are a non-profit, environmental NGO that is on a mission to save the world’s coral reefs. Their mission is “ to work collaboratively with communities to reduce direct threats to reefs in ways that provide lasting benefits to people and wildlife.”

Ralph said, “When our group was going through the planning stages, we were unsure of what problem we wanted to tackle. One individual brought up pollution and after hours of discussion and research we stumbled on The CRA.” Pollution Patrol learned about the problems they would face if they lost coral reefs, and immediately wanted to make a difference.

Ralph said “The fact that they protect us from possible flood and dangerous currents and a lot of chemicals found in medicine originate from there, just explains how vital they are.”  

Pollution Patrol is doing many fundraisers to ensure they help the fight to protect coral reefs, with this hat day in the past, they turn their focus to Saturday, Oct. 26. When they will be holding a bake sale at North Park off CC Hwy in Marshfield, the event will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aside from the baked goods being sold, there will also be free games for kids, face painting/ sticker tattoos, and Ralph will be doing caricature drawings for $10. 

After the hat day festivities were over Pollution Patrol raised around $85, while they still have a ways to go to reach their ultimate goal of $1,000, Ralph and his team are very determined and optimistic they’ll try their hardest. Ralph said “If anyone would like to help or support us, we will always be very thankful.”