Cherie Chenot-Rose
Cherie's Story
Learn about the adventures of Cherie Chenot-Rose
Cherie Renee Chenot-Rose holds Bachelor of Science degrees in Biology and Psychobiology. She’s published five scientific research articles on American crocodiles and hundreds of crocodilian monographs for numerous media outlets. Although her crocodile conservation efforts have been restricted to a remote niche in Central America, it has touched the hearts of individuals worldwide via TV appearances including Florida FOX4; Sweden TV4; Discovery Animal Planet, USA and UK; Poland TVN with Nat Geo traveler Martyna Wojciechowska; KoldCast’s World Travel; World Wildlife Foundation, Poland TVN; France TV5, and YouTube's Free Documentary - Amazing Quest - Somewhere on Earth: Belize.
Milestones
Present
Writing Life's Adventures
2010
A New Beginning
2009
Living Kidney Donor
Cherie's numerous extraordinary journeys on this earth have left friends, family, and followers encouraging her to tell her stories. Now sifting through years of documented adventures, Cherie's ready to share her secret to achieving one's dreams despite failures and self-perceived limitations.
Cherie and Vince currently enjoy the lack of humidity while hiking and jeeping in Colorado. They are returning to their passionate crocodilian conservation efforts at the end of this summer and are establishing GiveaCroc in Florida.
Conquering adversity... with every adversity comes an equal or greater opportunity. One just has to have faith to recognize it.
On September 5, 2010, Cherie and Vince’s dreams, hard work, and all their worldly possessions were destroyed by arson.
Watch the documentary trailer of events on Vimeo Now!
Starting with the clothes on their backs and one hundred and fifty miles from a home they could not return to, Cherie and Vince had a choice: return to the safety of the United States or stay in a third-world country and rebuild their lives.
"They can burn our home but they cannot extinguish our passion," Vince and Cherie agreed.
Months later ACES was back in operation! CSI: Belize was open to the public. "Crocodile Scientific Investigators" (anyone with an interest in crocodiles) boarded a flat-bottom skiff, Swamp Thing,
and received hands-on education about the importance of these magnificent creatures in the world's eco-systems while assisting Cherie and Vince with microchipping and collecting scientific data on the crocodiles they captured for population surveys.
Learn more in the Butler Eagle's Crocodile Sanctuary Revived and After While, Crocodile published in Cherie's alma mater's alumni magazine, The Rock.
After donating her kidney to her father who passed six years later, Cherie writes, "The decision to become a living donor strikes you like a rattlesnake. Only without warning. Similar to the mortality rate of people bitten by Eastern Diamondbacks, one-third of those who need an organ will die — before their name reaches the top of an organ waiting list. According to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), in the time it takes you to unload the dishwasher, one person is added to an organ transplant waitlist. On average twenty people die each day waiting. Those who wait the longest — NEED a kidney. Most of us — have two."
2000's
Love & Founding ACES
1990's
Research Biologist
1980's
Research Student
1960's
In the Begining
Cherie married her one true love, Vince Rose, a once-upon-time Playboy Mansion bartender, whom she met on a "Rocky Mountain High" escapade. A savage desire to meet John Denver guided Cherie to Vince Rose who was the property manager of Colorado's oldest resort, Woods Lake. Her first job as John's cabin-keeper was to fire the other girl Vince had just hired.
Fulfilling their dream, Cherie and Vince relocated to a tropical paradise, Belize, Central America. Enduring "the jungle-life" amongst jaguars, deadly snakes, and flesh-eating bacteria, they built their off-grid dream home along the Rio Grande River and founded the country's first crocodile conservation organization - ACES ~ American Crocodile Education Sanctuary. ACES provided natural habitats for problematic American and Morelet's crocodiles. Rescued injured crocs were re-released once fully rehabilitated. The forty-acre facility provided experts and interns alike the opportunity to study and gain hands-on experience with both species in the wild and in captivity.
Cherie’s literary passion arose while she was in the middle of the raging Bearing Sea on a longline fishing vessel counting by-catch for the United States National Marine Fisheries. Her first work was a poem "Longline" inspired by the sheer number of skates, a cartilaginous fish-like ray, gaffed by a Gurdy-man from the longlines. Yes, Donavan's Hurdy-Gurdy Man does exist!
Working in a predominately man's world when women were considered "Bad Luck" on fishing boats, Cherie achieved her dreams and even worked as a deckhand stacking the cork-line aboard a salmon seiner called the "Tyee." Known as "Corky," she was one of two women among the fishermen on the docks in Kodiak at that time.
Having graduated from East Brady High School in Pennsylvania, Cherie attended Westminster College from 1983 to 1986. After a few years of wondering who The Dead were and why they kept following her, Cherie transferred to Slippery Rock University and graduated in 1989 with two Bachelor of Science degrees: Biology and Psychobiology. Throughout college, she spent summers studying and conducting research via the Marine Science Consortium, Chincoteague Bay Field Research Station in Wallops Island Virginia. Thereafter Cherie fell in love with herps during her years teaching at the Barrier Island Environmental Education Consortium, Seabrook Island, South Carolina.
An only child and navy brat, Cherie Renee Chenot was induced into this world on October 4, 1965, in her parents’ hometown Butler, Pennsylvania. Her mother, Judith Anna Heasley, who eventually became a Deputy Sheriff, had married U.S. Navy, First Class, Terrence George Chenot the previous year. Shortly after birthing, the new family returned to Norfolk, Virginia, where Terry was stationed at the naval base. A couple of years later Terry became a deep-sea, hard hat, diver and was promoted to Chief Petty Officer. The three then moved to Key West Florida, where 3-year-old Cherie snorkeled for conch and lobster alongside her father and found her primordial calling... the sea.
Cherie holds Bachelor of Science degrees in Biology and Psychobiology. She’s published five scientific research articles on American crocodiles and hundreds of crocodilian essays for numerous media outlets.
research
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