Endangered Species Day

This year marks the 40^th Anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, one of the most successful environmental laws in U.S. history. Friday, May 17, 2013 is the 8^th annual Endangered Species Day – a day to spread awareness of species at-risk and to share success stories of species that have recovered. Join us in raising awareness!

• Attend an Endangered Specie Day event. Find one here!
• Spread the word on social media. Mention @savespecies in a tweet to help Endangered Species Coalition gain supporters (be sure to hashtag #ESDay). Or share a wildlife message with your Facebook friends (include @Endangered Species Coalition in your post so they can see your support).
• Learn about conservation efforts in your state! U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s interactive map can help you discover which species are being protected in your area.
• Use Endangered Species Coalition’s 10 Things You Can Do list to make simple changes that can have a big impact on species conservation.
  

Get Ready for Earth Day

On April 22, 2013, more than one billion people around the world will take part in the 43rd anniversary of Earth Day. Communities everywhere will voice their concerns for the planet, and take action to protect it. Here are some ways to connect and participate:

The Face of Climate Change | Submit a photo to help Earth Day Network build a global mosaic of climate change to share at events around the world.

The History of Earth Day| Get a quick overview of the how and why  behind Earth Day with this short WatchMojo video.

Earth Day Toolkit | Endangered Species Coalition is a great Earth Day resource. Find events in your area or plan your own!

A Billion Baby Turtles

Photo by Abigail Alling / Biosphere Foundation

Message from our friend, Dr. Wallace J. Nichols, co-founder of SEETurtles, SEEtheWILD and LiVBLUE.

The sea turtles need your help! Six of the seven species of sea turtles are endangered and facing possible extinction. This week we’re kicking off Billion Baby Turtles, a project aimed at reversing this alarming trend and saving sea turtles.

Even if you don’t have time to read this entire post, please take a minute to visit, “like” and share our new Facebook page, where you can also enter to win an amazing prize pack of gear and goodies from sustainable brands including ENO Hammocks, Endangered Species Chocolate, Feelgoodz, Hydro Flask, Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics, Nature’s Path/EnviroKidz, Numi Tea, NUUN, Osprey Packs, prAna, and Tofurky. Enter here.

Now, a little bit more about the sea turtles and what we’re up to with Billion Baby Turtles…

If you’ve watched Animal Planet you know that odds are generally working against sea turtles.  From the moment an egg is deposited in a sandy nest on a tropical beach, to the first time a baby turtle touches the sea, to decades later when she returns as an adult to lay her own eggs on very same beach, life is an endless series of life-and-death challenges for a sea turtle.

Nature is stacked against survival, which is why a mother turtle lays thousands of eggs during her lifetime in order to simply replace herself. Predators include dozens of species of crabs, beetles, ants, birds, fish, and sharks. Jaguars, pigs, wild dogs, and raccoons are even on the list of turtle eaters.

For millions of years, sea turtles handled it all just fine.

Yet, when you add modern humans to the mix, the balance suddenly tipped towards oblivion. Over the past century all seven species of sea turtle and their eggs have been hunted, carved, and eaten to the point that many populations are considered vulnerable to extinction. Getting caught accidentally in fishing nets and on hooks just adds to their woes. Throw in plastic pollution, boat collisions, and runaway coastal development on their nesting beaches and you’ve got a situation requiring intervention on a global scale.

But this isn’t a bad news story. That’s because over the past several decades a massive global network of sea turtle scientists, advocates, conservationists, and even lawyers has evolved to work day and night to bring them back. These heroes have been literally working around the clock, saving one egg-—one baby turtle-—at a time. At other times they’ll invest months to rehabilitate a single adult animal before returning it to the ocean. Every turtle released into the ocean is a moment of joy for everyone involved. It never gets old.

Think about it—while you sleep tonight, thousands of scientists, technicians and volunteers are saving sea turtles on the beaches of the world.

These projects are run on “Turtle Time.” Slow, steady, and tenacious wins the race. It takes as long as twenty-five years for a turtle to reach maturity, and return on that turtle-y kind of investment can come slowly. Turtle people are above all patient and hard working. Many projects have been steadily protecting turtles for more than thirty years. Their work is paying off. Some turtle populations are now on the rise after nose-diving to near extinction before that.

Photo by Neil Ever Osborne / SEEturtles.org

The Black Sea Turtle Project in Michoacan, Mexico celebrated its thirtieth anniversary this year and is experiencing its best season since its inception after watching the numbers of nesting female turtles bounce along the bottom of the graph for a decade.

Its sister project, Grupo Tortuguero, working to safeguard black turtles in feeding grounds a thousand miles away in Baja, is turning fifteen in January.

Turtle hunters and poachers in Mexico have had a change of heart and are now turtle protectors and guides. Everyone reports seeing more sea turtles in the ocean and on the beaches.

Now is not the time to let up, though. To get sea turtles back to their former abundance and to restore their ecological role in the ocean this is just half time.

We know exactly what to do. We just need to continue to execute the game plan.

Along with my friends Brad Nahill at SEEtheWILD and Fabien Cousteau at Plant a Fish, we came up with the idea of the Billion Baby Turtles, an initiative to help support groups working on the sea turtle front lines. To make a million more adult turtles we need a billion more baby turtles. It’s a one in a thousand situation out there, roughly speaking.

By creatively connecting individuals and small businesses with grassroots projects working to increase sea turtle production, we are helping overcome donor fatigue, burn out, and other second half challenges.

In the coming years we will collaborate widely to further expand the global sea turtle tribe, widen the base of donors through micro-philanthropy, and throw our support behind the men and women working for turtles on the front lines in their coastal communities around the world.

Forty years ago sea turtle pioneer, Dr. Archie Carr, described what it would take to save sea turtles.

 In the long run, marine turtles, like the seas themselves, will be saved only by wholehearted international cooperation at the government level. While waiting for it to materialize, the critical tactical needs seem to me to be three in number: more sanctuaries, more research, and a concerted effort by all impractical, visionary, starry-eyed, and anti-progressive organizations, all little old ladies in tennis shoes, and all persons able to see beyond the ends of their noses…

That is almost legendary substance.

While high-level official negotiations continue, and the large agencies and organizations fight for pro-ocean and pro-turtle policies, why don’t we all do our small part for sea turtles?

A billion baby sea turtles?

 Yes.

Why don’t YOU lead one to the water?

Join us on Facebook to Help Spread the Word About Billion Baby Turtles & Win Great Prizes.

Dr. Wallace “J.” Nichols is a scientist, activist, community organizer, author and dad. He works to inspire a deeper connection with nature, sometimes simply by walking and talking, other times through writing or images. He is co-founder of SEE Turtles, SEEtheWILD, & LiVBLUE among other organizations.

The Xerces Society

When we announced The Xerces Society as one of our 2013-2015 10% GiveBack Partners, we were well-educated about their work. What we didn’t know was how incredibly passionate their supporters are! Since our commitment to donate 10% of our annual net profits to The Xerces Society, we have received countless emails and phone calls from members, thanking us. Their passion is infectious; my interest, piqued!

So, Xerces Society, what’s with the name?

This conservation non-profit is named after the Xerces Blue, an extinct species of butterfly. The Xerces Blue is believed to be the first American butterfly species to become extinct as a result of loss of habitat caused by urban development.

Bring back the pollinators!

Want to help bees, butterflies and other animals that help pollinate our planet? The Xerces Society’s Bring Back the Pollinators Campaign works with four simple principles that will easily turn your backyard into a place where pollinators can thrive! Become an expert at attracting beneficial insects to your landscape with the help of Xerces Society’s book, Attracting Native Pollinators: Protecting North America’s Bees and Butterflies.

Why their work is vital…

Of the more than one million species of animals in the world, 94 percent are invertebrates. They pollinate, spread seeds, recycle nutrients, and are a food source for wildlife. Without them – whole ecosystems would collapse. But these little guys are often overlooked with decisions are made about environmental policy and land management. The Xerces Society speaks up on their behalf through advocacy, policy, education and applied research.

Become a member of The Xerces Society.  We promise – you’ll be in good company

SEEtheWILD On a Mission

Photo by MyFWCmedia via Flickr Creative Commons

Follow our guest blogger, Brad Nahill, Director and Co-Founder of conservation non-profit SEEtheWILD, as he continues his mission to protect sea turtles  in El Salvador.

Toluca

 “Possessing, selling, and consuming sea turtles is illegal in El Salvador,” states Enriqueta Ramirez in Spanish. “We are not interested in buying turtle eggs from you; we want to collaborate with you to protect sea turtles.” With these strong statements, Enriqueta is confronting a challenging history; a young female conservationist trying to change the paradigm of a male dominated culture of turtle egg exploitation.

Enriqueta’s audience is a group of about 50 turtle egg collectors, almost exclusively men, ranging from about 15 to 60 years of age. These men listen respectfully for the most part; its clear who is in charge of this meeting. The dynamic young leader of ViVAZUL, one of El Salvador’s leading turtle conservation organizations, controls the purse strings at this conservation project. Her organization (the Spanish translation of “Live Blue”) works with professional egg collectors to protect turtle eggs at three local hatcheries, where the eggs are protected until they hatch.

ViVAZUL is among the most effective turtle organizations in the country; with funding from Fabien Cousteau’s organization Plant A Fish, VivAzul has helped to save more than 400,000 hatchlings in its two years of existence. I have come to visit this olive ridley nesting beach in the small coastal village of Toluca on El Salvador’s central coast with Enriqueta to learn how turtle conservation is working in this small Central American country.

Toluca is not a town you’ll find on the map. Few tourists come to see the turtles or relax on its sandy beach. The 40 families here live in small compounds stretched out along the coast, with walls of bamboo marking the property of each family. The town’s kids know how to enjoy the benefits of ocean front living, swimming playfully in the surf as a pastel sunset plays out over the coastal hills to the northwest.

Enriqueta first visited Toluca a decade ago as a young graduate student. Back then, before the sale of turtle eggs was banned, the most that conservationists could do was to request that egg collectors donate a dozen eggs per nest (roughly 10% of an average nest) to the hatchery. In February 2009, the government of El Salvador announced a veda, a ban on the consumption, sale, and possession of turtles, their eggs, and turtle products) in conjunction with a project funded by US Agency for International Development (USAID) to purchase turtle eggs from local residents who collect them.

As an emergency measure, the new law has been successful. Over the past two years, roughly 80% of the turtle eggs in the country have been protected (about 1.5 millions eggs protected per year). However, Enriqueta and other turtle experts believe the egg purchasing program will not be sustainable over the long-term. Much of the money for the program has come from US AID funding, which will run out in two years. To get started on what to do after 2014, a group of leading organizations is working together to craft plans to replace the funds from other sources and invest in environmental education.

After Enriqueta finished explaining how a new system of ID’s would work during this nesting season, she methodically took the picture of all of the participants with her new iPhone. Quickly the tortugueros settled into groups, playing cards and smoking cigarettes. Enriqueta and I took advantage of the down time to interview a number of the men.

The prevailing wisdom of turtle conservationists in the country is that collecting turtle eggs is a primarily economic activity; as long as the money can be replaced, the eggs will be protected. Enriqueta, however, believes that there are social factors at work. When asked to describe what its like to meet up every night to go “turtling”, the guys used words like “pastime” and “sport”.

I’ve gone out to patrol on turtle nesting beaches more than 100 times but walking the beach at Toluca was a very different experience. I’m used to the mostly deserted beaches of Costa Rica where researchers control the beach and poachers avoid confrontations. Here in El Salvador, the tortugueros stake out their position along the beach, spaced out every 50 feet or so, standing on the water’s edge like sentries awaiting a beach landing. We didn’t see any turtles this early in the season, but the walk was as much of a learning experience as any beach patrol I’ve ever done.

Without programs like this one, nearly every turtle egg in El Salvador would be consumed. The country has roughly 4,000 tortugueros, spread out along every major nesting beach in the country. For most of these people, primarily men, the money earned from selling the eggs (either to a hatchery or the black market) is supplemental but can be a significant portion of their income. One nest of 140 eggs brings in $25, more than 10 percent of the average monthly income in this area.

With people still getting used to the ban on consuming eggs, the large number of people earning income from turtling, and one of Latin America’s highest levels of poverty, saving sea turtles in El Salvador is a complicated task. Fortunately for these turtles, Enriqueta has learned to skillfully negotiate between government officials, international funders, and the local group of tortugueros. Under her strong presence, most of the hatchlings of Toluca will make their way to safely back into the water.

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Read Brad’s 1st post from this conservation trip, Saving Sea Turtles.

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VivAzul is looking for volunteers to help with their hatcheries. Toluca is the kind of place where a volunteer with medium to high Spanish skills and the ability to adapt to a fairly challenging living situation will thrive. Minimum two-week commitment is required. Costs range from $20-25 per day for lodging and meals. To request information on this program, visit the SEE Turtles website.  You can also reach ViVAZUL on their Facebook page or via email, info@vivazul.org.sv.

Brad Nahill is a wildlife conservationist, writer, activist, and fundraiser. He is the Director & Co-Founder of SEEtheWILD, the world’s first non-profit wildlife conservation travel website. To date, we have generated more than $300,000 for wildlife conservation and local communities and our volunteers have completed more than 1,000 work shifts at sea turtle conservation project. SEEtheWILD is a project of The Ocean Foundation. Follow SEEtheWILD on Facebook or Twitter.

Protect Our Oceans x 5

-Photographs courtesy of Neil Ever Osborne

5 Ways That You Can Help Protect the Ocean

World Ocean Day is June 8th and what better way to celebrate than by helping to protect the ocean and the creatures that call it home? Most of the news we hear these days about the ocean is bad; giant islands of trash, sharks being killed for their fins, and more. But there is still hope to save the oceans and everyone can help no matter how far you live from a coast.

1. USE LESS PLASTIC

Many people have heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch out north of Hawaii; not many people know that all five of the world’s oceans have currents (called “gyres”) that collect plastic waste. This waste endangers sea turtles, birds, seals, and other wildlife.

How to help: First, avoid plastic whenever possible. You can support local bans on plastic bags (congratulations, Los Angeles)) and take the Plastic Pollution Coalition’s Pledge to refuse disposable plastic. You can also volunteer in the International Coastal Cleanup and help keep trash out of the oceans.

2. EAT LESS FISH OR MORE SUSTAINABLE FISH

Many of the world’s major fish stocks are overfished and collapsing. This is more than a food issue; these fish make the marine food web survive and many coastal communities depend on the industry. The good news is that there are alternatives for those who don’t want to completely give up seafood.

How to help: First, avoid the most damaging seafood such as shrimp. In some places, fishermen catch up to 10 lbs. of other fish and animals for every pound of shrimp. Also, print out a Seafood Watch Guide or download their smart phone app that tells you which fish are being caught sustainably and which ones can have high levels of toxins.

3. USE YOUR VOICE (OR YOUR EMAIL)

There are many opportunities to speak up for ocean conservation. For example, you can participate in the Sea Turtle Restoration Project’s campaign to enforce the use of turtle excluder devises on shrimp boats in Louisiana by emailing your Senator. You can also speak up for a strong National Ocean Policy here.

4. VOLUNTEER WITH A SEA TURTLE CONSERVATION PROJECT

Ever wanted to see what the life of a marine biologist is like? Our SEE Turtles project helps connect volunteers with sea turtle conservation programs in  Latin America at no charge. Patrol a turtle nesting beach, helping measure and tag sea turtles  and move their eggs to a protected hatchery. Volunteers pay from $15-50 per day for food and lodging, which is a critical source of income for many small projects.

5. TAKE AN OCEAN WILDLIFE CONSERVATION TOUR

SEEtheWILD is the world’s  first non-profit wildlife conservation travel project and our website promotes tours where you can get up close to ocean wildlife including sea turtles, sharks, and whales. Every trip benefits conservation programs through donations, education, and volunteer opportunities.

BONUS ACTION: SHARE A BLUE MARBLE

The Blue Marbles Project is a simple experiment in showing gratitude for the ocean. Millions of these marbles are passing around the planet, from hand to hand. The premise is simple, give a marble to someone doing good things for the ocean. Pick up some marbles here and share the stories of the people you give them to on Facebook.

- Brad Nahill

Guest blogger, Brad Nahill is Director & Co-Founder of SEEtheWILD, a wildlife conservation travel project. He launched SEE Turtles, a sea turtle conservation travel project with Dr. Wallace J. Nichols that has generated more than $300,000 in support for community-based turtle conservation projects in Latin America.

Choosing an Eco-Charity

We just wrapped up an Earth Day sweepstakes on Facebook, Win a Feel Good Moment, where we offered a chance to win $1000 for the non-profit of the winner’s choice. Choosing an eco-charity to support is a difficult one – there are so many great ones out there! We know this firsthand. To fulfill our 10% GiveBack Promise, we scour stacks of applications and dig deep into each organization. Here are shortcuts we’ve learned along the way to help you narrow down your choices and match up with the perfect conservation org:

1. PINPOINT YOUR CAUSE. Whether you’re interested in wildlife preservation, land conservation or climate change, there are resources to help you find an environmental org that supports your interests. Spend some time with a search engine to get a sense of the organizations out there that share your environmental concerns.

2. CHECK THEIR PERFORMANCE. Once you have a handful of organizations that speak to your eco concerns, Charity Navigator (for larger charities) and Better Business Bureau Giving Alliance (for local giving) are great places to dig deeper. These sites offer free tools to evaluate the financials, accountability and transparency of non-profits. With a few simple clicks, you’ll know which charities are trustworthy.

3. GET TO KNOW THEM, THEN JOIN THEM. Now that you’ve honed in on groups that mesh with your ideals, visit their websites. Sign up for their newsletters. Follow them on social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc). You’ll quickly gain an understanding of the scope of their work and involvement with their members. A good match will make you feel good, excited and involved in making an impact.

What advice would you give to someone who’s looking for a charity to support? Comment below and share your experiences.

ARKive’s 10 Sleepy Species

ARKive.org:  Bringing endangered species to life

Hello, We’re ARKive, the world’s only centralized digital library home to thousands of images and films of globally threatened species.  We’ve partnered up with Endangered Species Chocolate’s Involved blog to give you a glimpse into the world of ARKive and the amazing imagery and facts you can find on the planet’s rarest species.  From the diving feats of the osprey to the tiny baby thorny devil, you can learn about these species and over 13,000 more on ARKive.

Since any reader of this blog likely has a sweet tooth, we thought we’d highlight some of the sleepiest critters on ARKive who could have definitely used a few Endangered Species Chocolate bars to stay awake…let’s see if you’re not yawning by the end of it!

ARKive’s Top Ten Sleepiest Species

One Wiped Out Fellow!  I would be tired too if I were capable of impressive diving feats like the Gentoo penguin who can pursue prey up to 170 meters or 500 feet deep down in the ocean.

A Sweet Sleeper.  Although taking a moment to catch up on some sleep here, the arctic fox is usually always on the search for food and amazingly, can reduce its metabolism by half, while still being active, to help conserve energy while on the hunt.

Sprawled Out Slumber.  It’s well known that most bears hibernate through the winter months but sometimes it’s worth a reminder how truly unique this process is.  Once brown bears enter their hibernation period, they don’t eat, drink, urinate or defecate for up to six months!  Could you imagine not getting out of bed for anything for 6 months?

Chameleons Catch Forty Winks  It seems as though Parson’s chameleons start off as sleepy critters.  With one of the longest incubation periods in the reptile world, it takes a whopping 20 months for a Parson’s chameleon egg to hatch.  I guess if I had a nice safe place to sleep, I wouldn’t be in a hurry to hatch either!

Down for the Count.  It’s not surprising to catch all these big cats sleeping in the middle of the day.  Lions are inactive 20 out of 24 hours a day and reserve their energy for the cool and darker times of day, such as sunrise and sunset, to hunt.

Submerged Snoozer.  Manatees need to come up for air approximately every 20 minutes or less, making them the top napping species on the list.  Since manatees never leave the water, they don’t experience long periods of slumber like humans and so frequent, short bouts of sleep while resting on the ocean floor are enough for them.

Daytime Dozer.  Although most owls are nocturnal, meaning they are active at night and mostly inactive during the day, the little owl is actually diurnal and prefers to do most of its hunting during the day.  This little owl, however, seels to have taken the opportunity to catch a few winks before bedtime.

Curled Up to Catch Zzzs… The dormouse is such a sleepy creature that its name is thought to derive from the French word ‘dormir’ meaning ‘to sleep.’  When ready to begin hibernation, which can last up to 7 months, the dormouse enters a state of extreme torpor where its body processes slow to a fraction of their normal rate.

Cat-napping Koala.  Another sleepy species, the koala spends a vast majority of its time snoozing away and even when awake, it’s a very sedentary species.  you’ll find koalas often catching Z’s while balancing on branches in trees well out of harm’s way.

What a Yawn!  Although extinct, we still know some very interesting facts about this species and that while it yawned, the Thylacine could open its jaw wider than any mammal on the planet.  Are you yawning yet?

We hope you enjoyed this introduction to endangered species on ARKive.  To come face-to-face with more endangered species around the world, visit ARKive today!

Passing Along the Prize

Meet Natalie Patton, winner of Endangered Species Chocolate/Whole Foods Market’s ‘Indulge in a Cause’ photo contest.  Natalia offered to guest blog and share her experience of seeking out and selecting the receipient of the contest’s grand prize $5,000 donation.  Her passion is contagious!

I’ve wondered it, I can promise you have too and wouldn’t we all just like to know?  I mean, just exactly how many chocolate bars qualify as a years worth of chocolate?  Like you, I was not entirely sure, but it peaked my interest enough to submit a photograph to the Endangered Species Chocolate and Whole Foods photo contest.  Because let’s face it, chocolate is quite the compelling force.  And $5,000 to go toward my favorite environmentally focused non-profit?  Say no more!  Submission here I come.

A patch of green in a concrete jungle

I find myself in a squished, but comfortable apartment with my childhood best friend.  We live in the midst of a concrete jungle of white cement and bricks smeared with dirt and soot reusing to leave any space un-smogged.  If you came for a short visit, the tour would be incredilby short lived, since you can see it all by standing in the entrance.  So instead, I would direct your attention outside.  I would tempt you to wander up to the roof of our apartment building and tell you to keep wandering around to the back corner.  Because in that back corner there is a little color, curve and life in the midst of great gray and squareness.

And it is precisely that back corner that intrigued my lens one afternoon.  The submitted photo is of my friend doing a little weeding of our roof-top garden.  It’s not much, but we are becoming quite attached to our tomato, pepper and strawberry plants.

Indulge in a cause (getting involved and asking questions)

Thanks to my roommate’s web-surfing, some persuasive encouragement, Endangered Species Chocolate and Whole Foods, and some serious voting from the world of Facebook, I found myself, only a few short days after submitting my roof-top garden photo, sitting with an email in my inbox telling me the news:  my photo had won the contest.  As I sat staring at the email, I realized I had an incredible opportunity at my finger tips.  Yes, of course the years supply of chocolate, but the donation?

As a recent college grad, this amount of money seemed extraordinarily astronomical, but that’s probably because the only people seeing any of my income with significant digits (or any multiple zeros with commas) is the US government – thanks student loans.  Needless to say, this sum of money seemed to possess great potential for good.

So where to begin?  How can one begin to narrow down all the wonderfully worthy environmentally focused non-profits out there?  And how does one go about giving away money?  Which non-profit would use it best?  How can one be sure the money will be spent wisely and efficiently?

Now, I should tell you, I know what it’s like to be one of the many voices advocating for the important work done day in and day out at a non-profit.  I know the feelings that possess the gut when seeking to form the proper words for writing that one grant; when every ounce of energy dripping with the deepest depths of sincerity, believing beyond passionately that this organization should receive that money.  Those feelings are familiar.

I had never been the one with the money.  At least, not until last week.

Embracing a Passion: Urban Gardening Efforts

So…where to begin?  Food is important to both my friend and I.  The growing of food, to the fair treatment and pay to the farmers who grew the food, to the proper respect given to the land from where the food was grown – all of these things I care deeply about.  So immediately, we knew that if our photo won the contest, we would choose to have the money go toward sustainable urban gardening efforts.

Now I am a born and bred Mid-west, Minnesota native.  Raised just outside the city center hub of Minneapolis, St. Paul.  I knew immediately that I wanted the money to go to a local grassroots organization located within the city.

After some digging and emails to various non-profit directors, Youth Farm and Market Program caught and held me and my friend’s attention.  Their main goal is to empower kids through the process of growing food in several urban gardens.

Youth Farm and Market Program (YFMP) is about connecting locally produced food to the neighborhood communities from wich it was grown.  They are about educating youth, living in urban neighborhoods, in gardening, nutrition and entrepreneurship skills.   By seeing this young and growing generation and what ideas and dreams they have to offer their communities.  YFMP is empowering young voices to be advocates and leaders within their own communities. 

Since YFMP is such a community based organization, the Executive Director, Gunnar Linden, confidently assured that every dollar of the donation would go directly toward achieving said goal of growing food as a medium to develop youth in the community.  Whether that be supporting the costs of adding two new neighborhood gardens this summer or supporting Powderhorn Project LEAD where youth are taking part in paid internships, or finally being able to buy that truck they’ve been needing.  All options are signs of exciting growth of a great organization.

There is a video of YFMP in action on their website.  I encourage you to watch this video, particularly the last interview with a wee girl, because she says it best.  When asked why she came back for another year of youth Farm Camp, her gentle, whispered response is, “Because, it was like te funnest summer I ever had.”

But don’t take my word for it.  Learn more about the great and inspiring work they are doing on their website.  Visit www.youthfarm.net. 

To Endangered Species Chocolate and Whole Foods – thank you for this incredible opportunity.  To Youth Farm and Market Program – keep working, learning, growing and empowering.  Your work is important.  To the rest of you – if you are still curious about what a year’s worth of chocolate might look like…check out the evidence.

‘Involved’ asks: What criteria do you consider when choosing to donate to a non-profit?  Are there any tools you find helpful to narrow down selections for your donations?  How does giving make you feel?  Share thoughts and ideas by commenting below.