Honorable Governor Haley,

As a South Carolina resident who voted for you, I am hereby requesting your help in keeping the Shark Tooth Fairy project alive.

Mike Harris from Port Royal, AKA the Shark Tooth Fairy, has been making thousands of children and parents happy by organizing free Shark Tooth Fairy hunts at the beach of Port Royal. He has been spending his time and personal money diving for megalodon teeth and shark teeth and then gives them to kids for free at those hunts.

It was just brought to my attention that this project is being shut down by Dave Cicimurri, curator of the Natural History Museum in Columbia, SC because he is asking for impossible paperwork to be filled out including fossil reports for 2 ton of shark teeth that Mike found for the kids hunts in 2014 or he will lose his SC fossil license. That is outrageous! First off, who made the state of South Carolina owner of all the fossils found in the ocean in our territory? Doesn't the earth belong to each human being and animal who live on it? Guess not! I guess Mr. Cicimurri would rather charge overpriced fake gifts from the gift stores to parents who want to take their kids to the museum. We need to celebrate the acts of a kind hearted person like Mike who does not want anything else but to see kids have a smile on their face and enjoy time outside instead of playing video games inside.

It seems like everything is always about money because some friend of the curator is afraid that the value of his shark teeth will go down because The Shark Tooth Fairy is giving them away for free. So what! Do you think those kids will immediately go to eBay and sell their newfound treasures? No, they will keep them forever. They create memories that no one can ever take away from them.

I have been to each and every single hunt, except the last one (as I am very pregnant), but this project cannot be shut down. I am asking you as a parent that loves to see a smile on my son's face and on the faces of thousands of children and other parents to help us keep this project alive!

Please prove that you are not just a politician that does not care about what your people want here in South Carolina. Because I can tell you, the people all across America are sick and tired of the empty promises politicians make while trying to be elected and once they are, they are set with their nice pay checks and great benefits.

Maybe I am just one person who cannot make a difference but when it comes to making kids happy I am willing to try whatever I can!!

Keep the Shark Tooth Fairy project alive!

Sincerely yours,

Vanessa Collins
Okatie, SC