In 2018, Richard E. Hyman founded Future Frogmen, Inc., a non-profit organization with the mission of empowering high school and college students to be ocean ambassadors and future leaders. Through experiential learning, communication, action, leadership, and exploration, students generated public awareness about the ocean and deepened the connection between people and nature. That mission will continue through Save the Sound’s engagement of Future Frogmen’s following and its archive of original environmental content, including videos, a blog, and the “Blue Earth” podcast.
“I am pleased that my Future Frogmen efforts have found a new home with Save the Sound, an organization which shares our values and our sense of responsibility toward the health of Long Island Sound and the communities around it,” said Hyman, a Connecticut-based educator, conservationist, businessman, and one-time crew member on Jacques Cousteau’s research vessel, Calypso.
Save the Sound will embrace the existing Future Frogmen network, welcoming the 1,000-strong community to its ongoing projects, events, and action opportunities, and will continue to make the Future Frogmen content catalogue available to the public.
Save the Sound, a 50-year-old regional environmental action organization, will also expand its own content creation efforts, building on Future Frogmen’s podcasting legacy by launching an original podcast series as a community partnership with Verso Studios at The Westport Library. Planning is underway for a six-episode season, which will explore various environmental issues challenging the Long Island Sound watershed. The season is expected to debut in mid-2023.
“We are thrilled to have added the legacy of Future Frogmen to our public engagement portfolio,” said Save the Sound president Leah Lopez Schmalz. “And we are excited to be working with Verso Studios at The Westport Library, creative partners who share our commitment to conservation, education, and involving young people in the ongoing work to protect, restore, and transform the Long Island Sound region. We hope these offering expansions provide newcomers opportunities to join our Save the Sound community.”