by Lisa D. Mickey
Jake and Heidi Morgan have been in New Smyrna Beach for the last two decades and have stayed involved with Marine Discovery Center since their arrival. Jake served in the U.S. Navy as a carrier pilot in Vietnam before becoming a commercial pilot with Northwest Airlines for 28 years. Heidi was a senior flight attendant at Northwest, also for around 28 years. They have been married for 40 years. Heidi has two great-grandchildren and two grandchildren.
Get to know the Morgans, who sat down with MDC staff writer Lisa D. Mickey and talked about their involvement at MDC: We donate to a few places that seem worthy, but MDC is where we give the most.
How did you begin your involvement with MDC?
Jake: I am from Daytona Beach and was a “boat kid” my whole life. I lived on a boat in the marina at Halifax. When Heidi and I met through Northwest Airlines, I was living on a sailboat down in Key Largo. We spent many years in Key Largo, where we volunteered at Everglades National Park in their office there. After I quit flying with the airlines, I started driving a tour boat there because I have a [boat] captain’s license. More than 20 years ago, we decided to leave Key Largo and moved up here to New Smyrna Beach. One of the first things we did was to go out to Canaveral National Seashore and I started volunteering there and driving their boat. Shortly after that, I came to Marine Discovery Center and took the Coastal Systems class in the Florida Master Naturalist Program. That’s what got us started here. I was a [Brazilian] Pepper Buster for a while. Heidi also was a volunteer at Canaveral National Seashore and with Friends of Canaveral.
Heidi: Jake was the first one to get involved at MDC and it was back when they were still in the trailers [on the North Causeway]. He came home hot and sweaty after his days of Pepper Busting. All that time, MDC became bigger and bigger. I volunteered for two years at the Plein Air Paint Out – first with Friends of Canaveral and then here with MDC. I also volunteered at the hospital and at The Hub on Canal Street.
What excites you about the changes you have seen at MDC?
Heidi: I’ve done the plant walk and climbed Mt. Morgan and I belong to the Artists’ Workshop, where I have taken classes. I just like being on MDC’s campus because it’s so beautiful. I love the amphitheater and the restored shorelines.
Jake: If you go away for two years and return, you can see so many changes. Compared to MDC’s beginnings, so much progress has been made and MDC is doing tremendous work in the community.
How important is it to give something in the community where you live?
Heidi: It definitely is important and that’s a good reason why we moved here. While the fishing, sailboarding and living on the sailboat in Key Largo was fun at the time, there was no community there. People dropped in and passed through, and the only thing that felt like community was Everglades National Park. I told Jake I wanted to move where there was a town. Jake’s mother lived here on Riverside Drive in the 1930s. We biked this area when we came up to see it before we moved here.
Jake: It was a different kind of community in Key Largo. If you wanted to go shopping, it was at least a 45-minute drive or you had to go to Miami. I quit drinking in 1998, and down there, drinking and fishing is what you do. I was a full participant for many years in Key Largo.
With MDC’s mission to protect our coastal ecosystem, how does that resonate with you?
Jake: When I was a kid in the 10th and 11th grade, I was a river shrimper. I worked in the summer for a bait shop. There were about four of us and we took little boats out on the river with cast nets. We’d go over to the shore first with tools to dig up mussels, oysters and clams and then smash them to use for bait. Back then, it was indiscriminate destruction. We would sometimes see human waste in the river while we were out there. In some ways, there has been real improvement and in other ways, you see how fragile things are. At that time, we just didn’t have the idea that maybe we shouldn’t be taking all of those [shellfish] and that they might have some other use in the ecosystem other than for bait.
But didn’t you learn more about the ecosystem in the Florida Master Naturalist Coastal class?
Jake: I had been driving the boat and doing narration in Key Largo. I had a general knowledge, but as far as understanding the way everything fits together, that naturalist course at MDC was an eye-opener! When I went back out on the water up here as a boat captain, I was a little better at my job of discussing things with the tourists.
Heidi: Jake got us going with Marine Discovery Center and he’s the one who told me that MDC had a Dolphin Society. He said we should pledge $1,000 a year. I asked for how long and he said “for as long as we can give.”
Do you feel a value in participating in the MDC’s Dolphin Society?
Heidi: I do! I feel good about it. Look at all the things that donors are able to do with supporting MDC’s education programs. I think it’s very important, especially now. Government funding has been cut for things like arts and nonprofits. It’s important that people step up and donate to offer support if they can. If you can’t give money, do something else to volunteer or help. Donated time also is important.
Jake: We donate to a few places that seem worthy, but MDC is where we give the most.
The Dolphin Society tree is outside MDC’s front door. How does it make you feel to see all the names from our community supporting MDC’s efforts?
Heidi: I think it’s great that so many people’s names are on that tree.
Jake: We’re happy that MDC is here.
What does MDC mean to you?
Jake: It’s the most significant place in New Smyrna Beach of this type of educational center. There’s nothing else like it.
Heidi: You don’t always have something like this. MDC is spectacular. For a town like this to have such a great place for education and programs for kids, as well as a place for people to walk on this gorgeous campus where painters come to create and people come to learn, it’s pretty special. MDC can do so much and it’s very important in this community. We’re happy that we’re a small part of it.
If you would like to know more about ways to incorporate Marine Discovery Center into your financial giving plans, please click here.
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