We WON!!! In February, I was announced as a 2025 Stanley Creator – an honor that I and we are so proud to hold!! As a grantee under the Stanley Creators Fund, Tela Coral received an incredible and life-changing grant of $50,000 to “develop bold ideas and solutions for some of our communities’ deepest challenges.” 

Reveling in the Moment

The Tela Coral crew at the Reef Futures Conference in Mexico in Dec. 2024.

I remember the exact moment we found out: Juli, Heather, Chantal, and I were at the 2024 Reef Futures conference in Riviera Maya, Mexico with hundreds of our closest coral nerd friends.

An email notification came in – “Congratulations from Stanley Creators Fund!” The phone nearly jumped out of my hands as I read the news of this epic win. I screenshotted it and immediately sent it to our Board group chat. “HOLY SH*T,” I led off. “WE won Stanley!!!!!!!!”

Immediately, from Juli, “NO WAY!!!!!!’ Holy wow!!!! Jaw on the floor!!!! Tears!!”

When I called my mom to tell her, my hand was almost shaking holding the phone. 

And then, Chantal and I had to get onstage to sing “One Reef More,” a coral rewrite of Les Miserables’ One Day More, as part of a Creative Communications Workshop that no one really understood they were signing up for. (It was awesome, by the way!)

After singing ourselves silly, we found Juli and our Tela Coral crew in the crowd and I threw my hands out for a celebratory hug and yelled, “CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!”

“I CAN’T!” Juli grinned back. 

Amplifying Changemakers

The Stanley Creators Fund is aptly named because it amplifies creators, builders, and investors around the world who bring optimism for a better future through their work. This is certainly how I feel about our work in Tela: I love what we’re creating in Honduras, and I do believe it can change the current tide for coral reefs that we’re all caught in. 

In short, #TheRebelReef gives me hope. And, I know I’m not alone in this feeling. 

“There’s a magic and artistry around starting something the world has never seen.”

Building a World with Hope

We’re doing science, we’re telling stories, and we’re amplifying the work and voices of Hondurans who know this place is special. This reef is certainly something I’ve never seen, and I feel so proud to continue this work with the support of this generous grant. 

Juli, Chantal, and Tiff celebrate this first major support of the dream in Tela: a living coral biobank to preserve the unique corals in the Bay.

We plan use the funds to invest in Tela’s Rebel Reefs in two ways: 

(1) a living coral biobank to safeguard these precious, resilient genetics. This will be a small, emergency system separate from but complementing the living library we’re fundraising to build. It will facilitate isolation, spawning studies, independent research, rescue, and so much more.

(2) a VR cave at Tela Marine. We know we can’t bring everyone diving with us. What’s the next best thing? Bringing the Rebel Reef to them in the most immersive way possible. We’re buliding a VR cave to do just that. We hope anyone will be able to connect with this incredible ecosystem and fall in love with it, as we have.

Thank you, Stanley 1913 (yes, of the viral and incredible stainless steel thermoses and cups) for this honor of a lifetime. We’ll make you proud!