History of St Croix Seashell Society

The St. Croix Seashell Society, Inc. was formed in May, 2014 by Sharon Grimes, Zoraida Jacobs, Elizabeth Robb, and Marcia Taylor, with the idea of establishing a Seashell Museum for St. Croix.

Current Officers are:

  • President, Sharon Grimes
  • Vice President, Marcia Taylor
  • Secretary, Rebecca Loiselle
  • Treasurer, Ryan Harke
  • Member at Large, Mike Funk

Mission

The mission of the St. Croix Seashell Society, Inc. is to inspire, educate and increase awareness of seashells and mollusks through exhibits and other educational programs. As a non-profit organization, we are a project of the St. Croix Foundation for Community Development, and funded in part by Virgin Islands Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Educational Programs

Throughout the year, we offer education programs from Pre-K through high school, preferably at the St. George Village Botanical Gardens, but we can also present at schools. We also will present at summer camps and adult education programs. See a list of sample programs in the Education section.

Volunteer Activities

  • We participate with the St. George Village Botanical Garden with interactive education tables at both Mango Melee and Christmas Spoken Here. We also donate seashell ornaments to decorate a Christmas Tree to be auctioned at Christmas Spoken Here.
  • We participate with St Croix Environmental Association with an interactive education table at EcoFair and present a program for online education on Earth Day.
  • From time to time we conduct craft classes as a fun volunteer activity at the Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts (CMCA) on making seashell ornaments. We make seashell ornaments, which are available for sale at the Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts (CMCA) and the St George Village Botanical Garden, along with note cards, and postcards.
  • In the past, we have participated with the Virgin Islands Network of Environmental Educators (VINE) with a Science Saturday program.
  • In 2023 and 2025 we presented programs at the Conchologists of American conventions in Wilmington, NC and Corpus Christi, Texas, respectively.
  • Please email us for more information. We are eager to welcome you and appreciate your time and efforts.

Seashell Museum

We opened the Seashell Museum in 2015 at Fort Frederik, near the cruise ship dock. In 2016 we were able to move to the St. George Village Botanical Gardens, a former sugar plantation. Our museum is now located in one of the rooms that is part of a row house, where a family of enslaved workers would live. We have daily visitors that are mostly from cruise ship tours, vacationing tourists, and local residents. For detailed information including location, and hours of the Seashell Museum, please go to the Museum page.

Donations

  • We accept donations of cash via credit card through the St Croix Foundation. Please Donate to St Croix Seashell Society. 
  • We also accept donations of old family shell collections which were legally collected. Please email us for more information. 
  • And we are always looking for volunteers to help with programs or projects. Your help is sincerely appreciated.