From left to right Nancy Knapp-Parisi. Tony Parisi, Will
Goggins, and Senator Thom Tillis
On Saturday, the Hotline received a call from Thom Tillis reporting that someone had seen a sea turtle on the beach at the Sanderling Resort around 10:00 PM the night before. After repeated attempts to contact the person, Darlene Jones with the Hotline finally reached Mr. Tillis and passed all the information onto NEST President Tony Parisi. Although they had the name of the caller, neither of them realized that it was our very own Senator Thom Tillis! Tony contacted the caller and was informed some children attending the event he was hosting could point out the location where they saw the sea turtle. Tony and his wife, Nancy Knapp-Parisi, arranged to meet him at the resort and were shocked to meet Senator Tillis. He escorted them both into the dining room where there were about 150 people. He introduced them to 9-year-old Will Goggins, one of the kids who had seen the turtle. He then told the gathering what was going on and asked Tony and Nancy to talk about N.E.S.T. Senator Tillis, Will, and his dad, Jason, led Tony and Nancy to the place where Will had seen the turtle. Senator Tillis also had photos of the turtle that someone else had taken which provided a good reference, since any crawl or nest markings in the sand had disappeared. NEST Responders Sarah, Ginny, Remi, Fran, and Debbie arrived to help, but after over an hour of digging no eggs were found so it was marked as a possible nest 01. Tony and Nancy returned to the event to give Senator Tillis an update, where they were also introduced to Senator Ted Budd. Maybe the next call will be from the Governor or President!!!