Virginia teacher interns at home of
‘Dolphin Tale’
Alumni News
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Kandace Kilgore ’10 might have you beat when it comes to comparing summer vacations. The Scott County teacher got extensive marine biology training, the Florida sunshine, and she got to kiss a movie star. No. it wasn’t Brad Pitt or George Clooney. This one had rubbery skin, an elongated snout, and a sideways glance that’s easy on the eyes and melts your heart. Clearwater Marine Aquarium invited Kilgore to intern at their grounds and surrounding waterway. That facility happens to be the home of Winter, the dolphin on the cusp of superstardom after Warner Brothers’ “Dolphin Tale” opens this weekend. This marine romance began when Kilgore first saw the mammal in a movie theater earlier this year. Winter’s tale “I went to see ‘Soul Surfer,’ and the trailer for ‘Dolphin Tale’ appeared before the movie. It moved me so much I cried,” said Kilgore, a second-year kindergarten teacher at Duffield Primary School. Touched by that brief preview on the silver screen, Kilgore got home that night and dove into research about Winter – saved by a fisherman and marine staffers in Mosquito Lagoon near Cape Canaveral in 2005 when she was two months old. “She got tangled in this crab trap line, and basically, her mother left her there because she thought she wouldn’t survive,” said Kilgore, who learned about Winter’s legend online and firsthand. Because the line cut the blood flow to her tail, it fell off and left the young dolphin with two alternatives – learn a new way to swim with an artificial tail developed by a Florida prosthetics company or an early death. Six years of training and TLC has
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Winter swimmingly happy in her new home and becoming an inspiration to others, as Kilgore learned during her summer getaway. Mornings with Winter Moments after she “Googled” Winter, Kilgore clicked over to her rehab home, hoping for internship opportunities. “They still had internships available, and I thought that would be awesome. Being a teacher, I have summers off, so I sent my résumé and applied, and I got in,” said Kilgore. They placed her in the education division with her teaching experience, and she would work with kids camps and other aquarium outreach. But before the facility would open each day, Kilgore shared the sunrise with her favorite little girl. “We wear these blue staff T-shirts, so she knew who you were,” said Kilgore. “She turns and looks at you sideways to see who you are, and it is just adorable. She’s still little, and they have her in a tank with a 40-year-old dolphin – kind of her adoptive mom. Most of these animals have had something happen to them and cannot be released back into the wild. “I would go in there, and it was just us. She would make these noises, like she was singing to you. I could only get so close, but she would recognize me and just stare at you. Moments like that are amazing. That is what time with Winter was like. She is a hero.”
Kandace Kilgore ’10 Splashing up Support Kilgore has been working as a onewoman press agent for Winter these days, sharing he experiences with Winter to drum up box office business for “Dolphin Tale.” “I’m going to tell my students about my time with her, using that in the classroom to teach them,” she said. “I hope that the kids’ parents take them to the movie.” It will be one of several movie houses premiering the film, which stars Morgan Freeman, Harry Connick Jr., Ashley Judd and Kris Kristofferson. “That was all the buzz (in Clearwater) this summer, the movie,” said Kilgore. “When you see the movie, that is Winter not a CGI dolphin. She is a star. She didn’t have to be in a movie to prove it. I love her.” By Kevin Castle Reprinted with permission of the Kingsport Times News.