Students from East Cooper Montessori Charter School delighted in seeing their completed turtle sculpture for the first time on Thursday at a reception hosted at East Cooper Regional Medical Center.  

Under the leadership of their art teacher, Linda Hanson, the students painted and decorated over 200 individual small turtles that cover the back of the life-sized fiberglass loggerhead turtle that is appropriately called, ‘A Parent’s Journey’.  The turtle is part of the South Carolina Aquarium’s “Turtles on the Town” project, the first of its kind in Charleston.   

The turtle is now on display in the fountain at the entrance to East Cooper Regional where it will reside for the next three months.  After that, the turtle, along with 33 other turtles on display throughout the Charleston area, will be auctioned off to benefit the aquarium’s loggerhead turtle rescue program.  

East Cooper Regional Medical Center has had a long-standing relationship with the aquarium, over the years donating medical equipment and supplies to the aquarium’s Sea Turtle Hospital.  

East Cooper Regional Medical Center is a 100-bed acute care hospital located at 1200 Johnnie Dodds Boulevard in Mt. Pleasant.  The hospital has been serving the medical and healthcare needs of the greater Mt. Pleasant community since 1986.  East Cooper Regional strives to be the primary health care facility in its community, providing services such as women’s care, spine and general surgery and neurosurgery services. 

In 2005 East Cooper Regional was the first hospital in South Carolina to be recognized for service excellence under the J.D. Power and Associates Distinguished Hospital Program.  This recognition was awarded again in October 2006. 

East Cooper Regional Medical Center is accredited by the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, the nation’s oldest and largest hospital accreditation agency.  To learn more about East Cooper Regional Medical Center, visit www.eastcoopermedctr.com.