It was a seashell wonderland for 17 year old Swedish exchange student Anna on the beach of Sanibel’s Gulf Side City Park yesterday. She couldn’t believe there were so many beautiful shells scattered in every direction and that each one offered different patterns and colors to tell its own story.

Even if she picked up a shell then saw that there was a live mollusk inside, she would marvel at the beauty then put it safely down in the sand where she found it. Together, we both were in awe of the deep purple color inside this FIGHTING CONCH…

Then she ran over to me to share the gorgeous detailed architecture of this FIGHTING CONCH. It looks like you are looking down at a spiral staircase with a string of pearls lining the top!

Don’t you just love to see someone for the first time so excited to see the beauty in shells like we do? LOL So I asked her what her favorite empty shells were that she had collected since her shell bag was busting at the seams. She knew immediately so she dumped them right out and sifted through them looking for these shells…

Clark is involved with Rotary Youth Exchange through his Rotary club along with club member Cyndi Doragh… so that’s how I met Anna from Sweden!

As soon as I heard she was from Sweden, I showed her the Swedish TV segment  so she couldn’t wait to find shells on Sanibel too!

I don’t talk a lot about the other half of the life that Clark and I live other than our shelling life (albeit, a huge chunk of our life!) but I want to share a bit of our our Rotary life with you. When I say “our” Rotary, I really mean Clark because he is President of Rotary Club of Fort Myers South this 2012/2013 year. I am very proud of him because it is an amazing service club and they do such good work for our community and for world peace (really, I know that sounds crazy “world peace” but it is very true!).

Here is Sweet Swedish Anna with Clark (ahem… Rotarian President Rambo -heehee), and sponsors Cyndi and Pete Doragh…

We all had a fabulous day! Cyndi found a FLORIDA CONE and a KINGS CROWN!

Thank you Anna for coming to Sanibel to shell with Clark and me!

So now you know why Clark hasn’t been living up to his name “Super Sheller Clark” lately… because he’s been very busy trying to volunteering his time to Rotary. He’s such a good man!

Remember our trip to Thailand? Since I really never explained this, we went there to join 35,000 other Rotarians from all around the world to gather in Bangkok for the 2012 Rotary International Convention to find ways to better our world and find ways to support people in need. It was the most inspirational conference we’ve ever experienced. This next video really isn’t a shelling video although it does have some shells we found (of course!) in Thailand, it’s really about how small our world is and how we all came together in Thailand for peace. We, as shellers, know all about this stuff!  I made this video for Clark to show to his club but I thought you might enjoy it too.

If you want to help Clark and his Rotary Club with funding to provide this awesome exchange student program and so many more programs like Shelterbox to help and support others in need   Clark and I would be grateful for anything.

PS- I hear there are people finding WENTLETRAPS at lighthouse beach!