Twelve-year-old Casey Sokolovic of Winterville doesn't just love sea turtles. She's working to help raise funds for — and increase awareness of — the endangered animals.

Her quest to help sea turtles began in 2005, when she visited the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Hospital while on a family beach trip at Topsail Island.

Since then, she's served a junior internship at the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue & Rehabilitation Center, attended the Barbados Sea Turtle Project and has been a Turtle Walk volunteer at Topsail Island since 2008. She's been Environmental Ambassador for The Oakwood School in Greenville since 2007.

She created the L.A.S.T. (Love A Sea Turtle) project and developed and launched the website www.loveaseaturtle.com.

She also sells Fair Trade Organic Sea Turtle Blend coffee, lemonade and homemade sugar cookies shaped like turtles and their eggs at Village Point Market and at the Pitt County Farmers Market and other outdoor vendor fairs in the area. She's even created peanut butter dog biscuits, also shaped like turtles, that she's selling at her local vet's office, East Carolina Veterinary Services. She's sold “Remember Love” bracelets and “Save the Turtles” T-shirts to benefit the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in the Gulf of Mexico. In April, she coordinated the L.A.S.T. Sea Turtle 5K and Nature Walk for the Sea Turtle Hospital. And in July, she initiated the first Great Bake for Oceans Sake, promoting nationwide bake sales to raise money for marine life in the Gulf.

So far, she's raised more than $5,000 for turtles.

She's a certified NAUI Scuba Diver and an Ocean Heroes Award Finalist in 2009. This year, she was a local and regional winner of the Kohl's Kids Who Care Scholarship Program.

She's also a member of the Windsor Waves Swim Team and she surfs and competes in volleyball, basketball, soccer, softball and cross country.

— Jane Hudson

Here's more about Her:

The world would be a better place, if only: “There was world peace.”

If I could do it all over again, I would: “Do more.”

The food I could eat every day is: “Homemade granola bars.”

What's always in my refrigerator: “Juice.”

I still can't get the hang of: “Writing with my left hand.”

My guilty pleasure is: “Chocolate.”

My theme song should be: “‘Fearless' by Taylor Swift.”

My favorite possession is:“My watch.”

If I were a super-heroine, I'd want: “The powers of Poseidon.”

What I want to be when I grow up: “A science teacher.”

Someone should invent: “A vibrating hair brush.” /p>

In my spare time, I like to: “Be at the pool with my friends.”

On a rainy day, I love to: “Sit back and chillax.”

I've got to get up and dance when I hear the song: “‘You Belong With Me' by Taylor Swift.”