Introducing TurtleBoy!

This is my team! (L to R: Laura, Margaret, Gill, Linda and Catherine...Down in Front: Josh and Brian (Missing are Monette and Jeanette)

ALL ABOUT ME
Name: TurtleBoy
AKA: TASTE THE TRADITION
Age: NQH (Not Quite Hatched)
Height: 4.5" (I'm 2.5" thick)
Weight: 100 lbs.
Hometown: College Park, MD
My Greatest Thrill: To Live on the Boardwalk in Ocean City, MD!

this is my story

Right now, I just hang around in the Art Center in the Student Union, waiting for something to happen. I'm one of 50 turtle sculptures that the University of Maryland commissioned to commemorate its 150th anniversary this year. When I'm done, my name will become Taste the Tradition and I'll be living on the boardwalk outside of the Phillips Seafood Restaurant in Ocean City, Maryland. I can hardly wait! I love crabs and feeling the sand under my feet and between my toes!

Some of the other turtles are already hatched. They go by names like "Hear the Turtle" (he looks like a marching band person, get it? Hear the Turtle instead of Fear the Turtle??), "Fear the Author" (he looks like Edgar Allen Poe), and then there's "Kertle" (he looks like Kermit). We were all based on a sculpture done by Steven Weitzman of Weitzman Studios, Inc, in Brentwood, Maryland.

	In the beginning we all looked like this. Lots of artists sent in designs to a campus committee and 50 designs were chosen to be made into real sculptures, like me.
	Here my designer...Linda and I meet eye to eye...she is pretty short, too, so we bonded pretty good.
	These are my feet which I think are pretty cute!
	My buddy Brian is making my beach hat so that I won't get too sunburned at the beach.
	Last night they primed me (whatever that means!) and then painted me a little bit to see how the finish was going to look. They bought Ralph Lauren paint to paint me with so I feel very special!
	This is how I look today...Yikes! I have a green face. It's a little hard to get used to...I can't wait to see what happens this weekend!