2025 Charity Turtle Race is here!

SUNDAY, JUNE 8:
NYC's pet turtles are racing to support grassroots ecology education, local turtle rescue, and native turtle rehabilitation programs!

UPDATE: We are officially SOLD OUT! That being said, you can still join the waitlist, donate to support turtle causes, and tune in to our official live stream (prpr.fyi/turtleracelive2025)

REGISTRATION, DONATIONS, & TURTLE TOKENS

SEE THE OFFICIAL LIVE STREAM (Sunday 10am-3pm)

CAUSES

Activities

RACE SCHEDULE

REGISTRATION PAGE: TURTLE TOKENS, FUNDRAISING LEADERBOARDS, & RACER PROFILES

how to bet on a race!

tl;dr: Tokens are for betting. Tickets are for prizes.

For the 2025 Turtle Race, there are two different kinds of currency. It’s like an arcade (Dave & Buster’s, etc.) or family entertainment center (Chuck E. Cheese, etc.) where you use tokens to play the games and earn tickets to win prizes.

Turtle Tokens allow you to place bets.
Turtle Tickets can be exchanged for prizes at the Prize Table.

In order to place a bet, make your donation at the Token Station and then bring your Turtle Tokens to the Betting Station!

After each race is over, winners must go to the Betting Station to collect their Turtle Tickets. Prizes are first come first serve— good luck!

We heard your requests last year! This year, we will try allowing participants to exchange Tickets for Tokens at a ratio of 5:1, with a minimum of 25 Turtle Tickets (which would be 5 Turtle Tokens!)

(For any math/betting nerds who are curious: we are using a modified Parimutuel betting system, in which all bets are pooled together and payouts are calculated by sharing the pool among all winning bets, with payoff odds being proportional to the size of each bet.)

"It is because of Prime Produce, Earthlings.NYC, and the NYC Charity Turtle Race that we were able to afford the medical supplies and medications that were so desperately needed last season. Because of your kind donation we were able to treat and later release a number of turtles that came to us sick last summer. Among them were turtles hit by cars, a large snapper that had been hit on the head with a hammer, and turtles abandoned in the wrong habitat resulting in dehydration, broken limbs, and upper respiratory infections."
~ Lorri Cramer, NYS Licensed Wildlife Rehabilitator & Director of NY Turtle & Tortoise Society Rehabilitation Program

About this event!

Our Hell's Kitchen-based urban ecology education program, Earthlings.NYC, is hosting its Third Annual NYC Charity Turtle Race (yes, with actual turtles!) Sunday, June 8.

We have educational and creative opportunities as well as many prizes for participants of all ages who want to wager on a turtle! This event comes from a community collective of friends, family, and neighbors who collaborate on community service / social good initiatives. We’re hosted today at the prime produce Guild for Good, a cooperatively-governed coworking office, special events space, and community center at 424 West 54th Street.

Thank you to all our volunteers, pet turtles and turtle caretakers from all over New York City, and to all our program partners that have made today possible!

And please, if you’re active on Instagram, please please tag us: @earthlings.nyc

WHERE THE DOLLARS GO!

100% of today’s proceeds will go towards amazing NYC-based community initiatives (90% specifically to local turtles and/or grassroots ecology education)

30%: New York Turtle & Tortoise Society’s Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation program, run by the inimitable Lorri Cramer. NYTTS which promotes conservation, preservation of habitat, and the promotion of proper husbandry and captive propagation of turtles and tortoises since 1970.
30%: Our “Tulpehoking” Native Turtle Sanctuary, Pollinator Garden, & Ecology Field Station, which we are raising funds to create in partnership with Seeds to Soil (which creates citizen science and ecological community projects such as the TinyPlots initiative)
30%: Supporting future Earthlings.NYC programming initiatives like the Charity Turtle Race, including our Turtle Team rescue/rehab program and our invertebrate zoology programs.
10%: Contributing to our amazing venue and host, the Prime Produce Apprentice Cooperative (PPAC), which operates a grassroots, cooperatively-run member space where friends, family, and neighbors cultivate the craft of community service. This is our way to honor the space that we use for almost all of our programming (They are looking for new members! And you can rent their venue!)

Check out the official event map below:

Friends and activities

Our community center's own mascot, Hanunah, and locally-owned petstore Petqua's famous sulcata, George, will definitely be participating in the race, as well as rescue turtles currently under the care of our Turtle Team: Boris & Al Pastor. None of our native NY turtles are allowed to participate because we don't want to expose them to potential pathogens before we release them back into the wild!

We have turtle participants of various species and sizes from all over NYC, from our biggest 60 lb sulcata tortoise to our <60g baby turtles.

Visit rescue rabbit and guest contender, Zip, in the Rabbit Racer room. Sign up to get your facepainted (10:30am-11:30am and then 1-2pm)!

We will also feature several activities including arts and crafts, a book-based library scavenger hunt, and delicious plant-based food provided by OSIL (Our Secret Ingredient is Love) and beverages provided by Simple Brewing starting at noon!

PLEASE NOTE: these other activities taking place in our makerspace or 2nd floor space are not ADA accessible (sadly, there is no elevator in our building). If you have accessibility concerns, please email Hanunah!

Want to earn some extra Turtle Tickets? You can get bonus Turtle Tickets in many ways:

In the basement artspace: “Print & Sprint” Sign up for one of our 2 block-printing workshops (happening at 10:30am and 12:30pm— space is limited)
In the basement artspace: “Upcycled Turtle Treasures” (at 11:30am and 2:15pm)
In the 2nd fl Reading Reef: Complete the Cybernetics Library Turtle-themed Book Scavenger Hunt
In the 2nd fl Reading Reef: Complete turtle-themed assignments in a special Turtle Zine created by the highschoolers of Doodle Force Comix!
In the 2nd fl Reading Reef: Sign up to join the Turtle Team and answer some questions that may require you to review our special Turtle Team Recap Zine!
In the 2nd fl Reading Reef: “Catch a light, Save a flight” Make a turtle suncatcher for bird-safe windows! (From 11am until supplies run out!)

Race schedule (SUBJECT TO change)

10:30am - Race #1: Aquatics Heat 1

Bustelo
Bowser
Princess
Lyn
Al Pastor

10:45am - Race #2: Aquatics Heat 2

Tina Turtle
Brook
Max Berglund
Juice
Hakka

11:15am - Race #3: Tortoises Heat 1

George
Tank
Buffalo
Pablo

11:30am - Race #4: Tortoises Heat 2

Hanunah
Neptune
Georgie
Boris Korolyov Shapiro

11:45am: Intermission

Announcements & Set Up

12:00pm - Race #5: Exhibition Race: Aesop’s Showdown

Qualifying Turtle Racer TBD
Zip, the Rescue Rabbit (representing All About Rabbits Rescue)

12:30pm - Race #6: Aquatics Semifinals

TBD! Stay tuned!

12:45pm - Race #7: Tortoises Semifinals

TBD! Stay tuned!

1:00pm - Race #8: “Squirts” Little Turtles

Al Pastor
Hakka
Pablo
Boris
Buffalo

1:15pm - Race #9: “Gamera” Giant Turtles

George
Hanunah

1:30pm: Intermission

Announcements & Set Up for Races

1:30pm - Race #10: “Rookies” 1st Time Racers Heat 1

Bustelo
Brook
Princess
Georgie
Zip

1:45pm - Race #11: “Rookies” 1st Time Racers Heat 2

Neptune
Buffalo
Juice
Lyn

2:00pm - Race #12: Grand Prix Championship Race

Top 2 tortoise semifinalists and top 3 aquatics semifinalists

2:15pm: Intermission

Announcements & Set Up for Relay

2:30pm - Race #13: Turtle-Human Relay Race

TBD: Will include a collection of Turtle Racers (and their humans) that have inspired the most donations, have inspired the most bets, and will of course include the Champion Racer!