SECOND CHANCE
At first glance, Richie Moretti does not look like a sea turtle rock star. Small-statured and blue-jeaned with his dark hair pulled back into a thin ponytail, he could be lost in a crowd—but not in this crowd that has gathered on a bright, breezy Saturday morning at Higgs Beach in Key West, Florida.
“Richard, how ya doin’?” yells a man wearing a key-lime-green T-shirt that reads Key West Sea Turtle Club Beach Patrol. “We’re here to help!”
Moretti smiles, pats the man’s arm and thanks him. The man is among hundreds who have shown up after getting the word on local radio and social media channels: The Turtle Hospital is releasing a sea turtle at noon. Already, scores of kids have swarmed the back of the turtle ambulance: a white Chevy van with bright orange stripes that hospital manager Bette Zirkelbach has driven down from Marathon. As helpers part the sea of iPhones and onlookers, Moretti and Zirkelbach lift a plastic tub holding the
