Comedy Night Will Fundraise For Marine Animal Care
The National Marine Life Center (NMLC) in Buzzards Bay will hold its second-ever comedy night to fundraise for its mission of rehabilitating and releasing stranded marine animals.
Comedy For Conservation will take place on Thursday evening, August 4, at Stone Path Malt in Wareham. The event is presented in partnership with Funny4Funds, a comedy organization that assists in coordinating events to raise money for a cause. The event will feature three local comedians for a 90-minute comedy show. Dinner will also be served, and patrons will have access to a cash bar as well as 50/50 raffle prizes and silent auction items.
“It’s a way to get people out there and have something else to do and also raise money for our mission of caring for stranded marine animals,” said Sara Sperber, operations and programs coordinator for NMLC.
Funds from the event will go toward supporting the NMLC’s mission of rehabilitating, caring for and releasing stranded marine mammals and sea turtles. Ms. Sperber said that currently NMLC has five harbor seal pups in its hospital. There are no sea turtles at the hospital, she said, because all of them were transferred elsewhere after being triaged at NMLC.
“We are the only marine animal rehab hospital in New England that does both mammals and sea turtles,” she said. “The funds just go to everything from the seals to basic operations at the end of the day, so we can actually be here. It pays for their food, it pays for their medications and it pays to keep the lights on. It goes toward paying for staff to actually be here to take care of these animals.”
The NMLC’s mission goes beyond just caring for marine animals, Ms. Sperber said.
“Not only do we want to rehab and release, but we also want to take all of the information that we’re gaining and educate the public and do outreach about marine wildlife health and how to safely interact with these animals if they ever do see them in the wild, what to do if they ever see an animal in distress and overall conservation. These are native species to our waters; a lot of people don’t know that. Sea turtles do come up every summer, and a lot of people don’t realize they strand every fall or early winter. So that’s also why we’re here: to educate people on what is going on around Cape Cod in the waters.”
The upcoming comedy night will be the second fundraiser for NMLC this summer following the food truck festival that was held in June.
“That was definitely a success,” Ms. Sperber said. “The public seemed to enjoy it. Next year we’re already planning to have more trucks because we know the lines were long, so we’re already planning on making it bigger and better.”
Tickets to the Comedy For Conservation event can be purchased on both the Funny4Funds and NMLC websites.