Freshmen August Terry and Adelia Torvik won first place for the bazaar at the Florida Junior Classical League State Latin Forum at the Wyndham Orlando Resort and Convention Center on April 11-13 by selling crochet manatees.

“We sold out within the first 18 minutes,” Torvik said. 

The students started preparing for their project three months before the convention.

“The medium ones I made took about two hours each to make,” Terry said. “We took about one and a half months total to actually make the manatees.” 

Every school attending the convention is able to participate in the bazaar, selling different products to raise funds for their programs. 

“We decided to sell the manatees to make money for the Latin Club for next year,” Terry said. “We chose manatees because they’re easy and popular and they’re really fun to make.” 

The manatees came in three sizes: 3 inches long, 8 inches long and 2 feet long. Terry and Torvik sold the two smaller sizes.

“The price of the small manatees was $6, and we charged $20 for the medium ones,” Terry said. 

Twenty-six manatees were sold during the event. One of the manatees, which was larger than the rest, was raffled off at the event.

“We made about $445 in sales, and about half of it was just the raffle,” Torvik said. 

Torvik and Terry split the work among themselves, buying separate supplies. Terry bought 13 skeins of yarn and Torvik bought 4, amounting to about $170. They made $445 total, 25 percent going to each of the girls and 50 percent going to the Latin Club. 

“I probably spent as much as I made on yarn,” Terry said. “My mom bought most of it, though, and there were lots of sales.”

By Keeley Sorgenfrei