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Watertown Boy Asks For Donations To Sea Turtles Instead Of Birthday Gifts

WATERTOWN (CBS) - Imagine this. A little kid says he doesn't want birthday presents. Not a single one.

Instead, he asked family and friends to let him give away the money they would have spent on him, so he can help the creatures he loves.

"Look! It's Myrtle the turtle," cries Jasper Rose from Watertown. For Jasper the New England Aquarium is just about a perfect place and sea turtles are the love of his life.

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Jasper Rose at an aquarium tank with sea turtles. (WBZ-TV)

"The thing I like best is they're kind of, like, beautiful, and they're endangered so someone needs to rescue them," he says.

And Jasper takes that job seriously. So as his sixth birthday approached he surprised everyone when he said: "I didn't really want presents. I just wanted more money for the sea turtle thing."

The sea turtle thing is the rescue program that helps turtles at the Aquarium's sea turtle hospital in Quincy. So Friday, Jasper donated $600 that could have bought him a whole lot of toys.

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Jasper Rose at an aquarium sea turtle tank. (Image Credit: JasperJRose.com)

"I knew I had to help the turtles some way," he says.

To make it more special, the six year old got to feed the 90 year old Myrtle.

"Feeding Myrtle is really fun. If they die off we'll have no more on the planet, and if we have no more on the planet I'll have to pick a new favorite animal," Jasper says.

"I think he'll always remember this day, and I think he'll find something else to do next year. Who knows what it'll be next year," says Jasper's mother Ananda Rose.

For more information, visit Jasper's website about sea turtles.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Karyn Regal reports

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