Worcester County mermaid uplifts independent authors through book subscription for kids
Salisbury, Md. – Tasha Haight is a children’s book author, environmental advocate and professional mermaid has launched a book subscription box for elementary school-aged kids. The goal, she said, is to increase awareness and enthusiasm for environmental conservation in kids through learning and fun.
Originally from Worcester County, Haight travels throughout the country, usually alternating between the Delmarva region and Jacksonville, Fla., for her work as a mermaid and to promote her work as children’s book author.
“It’s a term that we like to call ‘edutainment,’ so it’s educational entertainment,” Haight said. “It’s getting kids interested in a way that makes them want to sit there and learn about whatever it is that they’re learning about.”
The Ocean Guardian Box is a subscription service that brings a box with a children’s book and environmentally friendly craft or toy every month and usually includes a letter from its author. The authors, some of whom are other professional mermaids or surfers, environmental advocates, or in one case a second grade class, partnered with Haight for the service in an effort to increase recognition for their work and foster community with other independently published authors.
“I felt that it was a great way to not only educate the next generation of ocean warriors and environmental warriors, but also uplift other small, independent authors as well,” she said. She said going to conferences for independently published as well as women authors gave her a network she said would help merge boost an enthusiasm for conservation education in young children.
“Having all these local communities of small authors through stuff like Kindle Days and the Woman in Publishing Summit, which I will be a speaker at this year, gave me these connections with all these different authors, and I just felt that it was a great way to kind of connect everybody in the community and raise up all of our voices together,” she said.
Haight said she hopes her work as both a professional mermaid and author help foster a community of conservationists, no matter how young.
“When it comes to the environment, mermaids is a great way to do it because they see their mermaid friend and they realize, ‘oh my goodness, that mermaid lives in the water,” she said. “So now I have to take care of the water because otherwise my mermaid friend lives there and she needs to live in a nice home.”
