Workers at a Connecticut dry cleaner are helping turtles crawl through their store to reach the marsh where they lay their eggs
Courtesy of Jennifer Malon and Best Cleaners.
- A dry cleaning store in Connecticut has become a passageway for local turtles.
- Female turtles cross from a local pond through the store to a marsh to lay their eggs.
- Months later, baby hatchlings take the journey in reverse, also with the help of Best Cleaners' employees.
Dry cleaners aren't usually associated with environmental activism.
But a team of employees at Best Cleaners in Middletown, Connecticut are spending part of their workdays helping mother turtles and, later, their baby hatchlings navigate through their business to a marsh next door.
The cycle begins every summer when female Eastern painted turtles cross from the city's 19-acre Pameacha Pond through the dry cleaners to get to a marsh behind the store. A few months later, the babies will make their slow trek back to the pond, also via Best Cleaners.
"It usually starts at the beginning of summer," manager Mac Falco told Insider. "We had a few already last month. At the end of the summer, we'll have all the babies going from the marsh back to the pond."
The dry cleaners' employees decided five years ago to help the turtles they saw crossing the busy two-lane road outside the store after finding them meandering around the store and its parking lot, The Washington Post reported.
"Every summer, we're always looking at our feet because we don't want to step on them," assistant manager Jennifer Malon told the Post. "It's important that we give these turtles a fighting chance to get across the road so they can live longer lives."
Courtesy of Jennifer Malon and Best Cleaners.
When they spot a turtle inside or outside, the store's employees scoop them up and help them get to their destination, whether it's the pond or the marsh, according to the Post.
"When we noticed some of the turtles were coming through the shop and getting lost in a corner, we realized that helping them get to where they needed to be was something we could do," regional manager Matt Dionne told the Post. "It's a straight line to the pond, 50 feet from the shop."
He added that the baby turtles, which are about the size of a quarter, struggle to cross the busy street on their own.
"The turtles are quite small, and drivers have a hard time seeing them," Dionne told the Post. "They're going to make the journey across the road regardless, so why not help them out?"