By Reginald Williams
Special to the AFRO
The days of adolescent boys romping outside in the dirt, chasing insects, and cozying up with toads appear to be a play passion of the past. Instead of exploring nature, many of today’s youths are more interested in and consumed by video gaming. But in this tech-obsessed age, Elijah Mackey might be the proverbial dinosaur.
Elijah loves turtles. He loves talking about them, and he loves caring for them. Elijah is the proud parent of seven turtles. Bowser was his first and Tank is the newest addition to the family. Elijah hopes one day to own a 300-pound pond to house all his turtles, including those he doesn’t have just yet.
“This boy right here, he loves turtles so much that if he had 200,046 turtles, he’ll always want another one,” said Nasir, Elijah’s 8-year-old brother.
The Hampton, Virginia native has immortalized this passion for turtles in his debut book, “Turtle Tales: Discovering The Watery World of Terrapins.” He penned the non-fiction read for youth ages 5 to 12 to support their learning about the native species of turtles in America.
The young author will travel to Orlando, Florida, Oct. 4-6 to speak about turtles at the AnimalCon USA conference. AnimalCon USA allows animal lovers to meet and talk with their favorite animal influencers and content curators. Elijah will be a panelist at the annual symposium, where he will showcase and discuss his book.
“I feel very excited about getting the opportunity to speak ,” Elijah shared with a surreal calmness. “I’m going to say some pretty cool stuff about turtles.”
Despite Elijah’s tranquility in expressing his happiness, Jara Clark, Elijah’s mom, shared how quietly excited he was when he realized she was coyly informing him of AnimalCon’s decision to select him as a panelist.
“When I told him, I caught him off guard,” shared Clark. “I had him on tape trying to get his natural reaction—the boy is so cool. But the moment of realization his face softened and there was just pure excitement. The way he lit up are the moments that I live for.”
The visit to Orlando will be the 7th-grader’s first, but he has no interest in visiting Disney World or Universal Studios, the city’s major attractions. Instead, Elijah wants to see alligators, iguanas and more turtles.
Elijah’s love for turtles—the red-eared slider is his favorite—was born about three years ago when he accepted the care of a friend’s unwanted pet turtle.
“My first turtle is Bowser. He’s outside in the pond right now,” said the teen.
Elijah’s commitment to turtles extends beyond just caring for his own. He dedicates much of his time to volunteering. The Virginia Living Museum, “an open-air museum located in Newport News, Virginia that has many living exhibits of Virginia’s indigenous species,” is credited with being Elijah’s second home. He also volunteers at the Bunny Hutch Boutique, an exotic animal rescue shelter based in Virginia Beach, where Elijah provides exotic animal care.
According to Clark, Elijah has always demonstrated a proclivity for aquatic animals. One of his pastimes is fishing. He owned his first fish, Strawberry Happy Fish, at age 2. Clark, recognizing his passion, wanted to support it. She suggested doing research to support his understanding of his interest.
“I said, ‘Let’s go to the library and look up what you think you love about this and see what it is,’” explained Clark. “We came up with marine biology might be where he was headed. But since then, it’s grown into orthology or zoology, but now we’ve rounded his love out to biology.”
Clark, a self-described “nature girl,” lives vicariously through her son. Clark is joyful of Elijah’s enthusiasm for terrapins.
“Because so many young men get pigeonholed into sports, I was like, ‘Do anything else. You can do sports too if that’s what you want, but do something intellectual first. Let’s lean all the way into that,’” said Clark.
“Childhood is so very important because they don’t have control over their experiences. It’s very limited to what they can create on their own,” she continued. “So, it’s been my job to be the genie, , ‘What do you need? How can I help you get where you are trying to go?’”
When Elijah presents at AnimalCon, it won’t be his first time speaking before large audiences. According to Alasha Bennett, founder of the Bennett Center, a non-profit youth entrepreneur program, Elijah has spoken before City Council and the public school administration.
Elijah’s “Turtle Tales” is available at Amazon.
You can support the author, speaker, entrepreneur and aquatic animal enthusiast by visiting: https://www.zeffy.com/ticketing/8ce74270-c461-478f-87e5-406d918f2e64.
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