And the Winner is... - Oceana USA
Home / Blog / And the Winner is…

April 20, 2010

And the Winner is…

Of the nearly 9,000 of you who entered to win the Ocean IQ Quiz grand prize drawing, the winner is… (drum roll, please)

Lori Albrecht!

I spoke to Lori by phone yesterday and was thrilled to learn that she is passionate about ocean conservation — particularly sea turtles.

The grand prize, an eco-vacation with SEE Turtles, happens to be a perfect fit. While she can’t take any more time off this year, she said she’s excited to choose a trip in 2011, and is already eyeing the trip to Costa Rica.

On a trip to Hawaii last year, she saw her first sea turtle while snorkeling. “It was incredible, I could hear him crunching, eating the algae off the rocks,” she said. “He turned and looked at me and kept right on eating. It was fascinating. I fell in love with them.”

Lori said she also loves sea turtles because she can relate to them. “On land they are clumsy and slow — that’s me,” she said. In the water they turn into this fabulous creature that is so graceful, and wonderful. That’s kind of how I see myself, because I’m a real klutz.”

Lori lives in central Georgia and works for the Department of Defense, but she tries to get to the coast as much as possible. Last summer she got scuba certified, and she said spending time in the deep blue has ignited a fire in her to conserve coral reefs and the creatures that depend on them.

When she got the email congratulating her on the win, she didn’t believe it. “I thought, ‘Yeah right, what’s the catch?’ But when we wrote back and put her in touch with SEE Turtles, she knew it was real. “It took me a few days to let it sink in before I told my friends.”

Congratulations, Lori!