Feel Good Friday - Save the Elephants

I just learned that tomorrow is World Elephant Day. That’s a great reason for us all to learn about Save the Elephants.

Founded by Iain Douglas-Hamilton in 1993, the mission of Save the Elephants (STE) is “to secure a future for elephants and to sustain the beauty and ecological integrity of the places they live; to promote man’s delight in their intelligence and the diversity of their world, and to develop a tolerant relationship between the two species.”

Why elephants? In addition to being intelligent, iconic animals who attract tourists to Africa, elephants are a keystone species who play an important role in maintaining the biodiversity of their ecosystems. They do this in a few ways: eating vegetation as they walk through it creates pathways for smaller animals to use, digging for water with their trunks provides water for all nearby, and um “depositing” dung far from where they eat helps disperse seeds and boosts the health of the savannah.

While it may come as no surprise that tens of thousands of elephants are killed every year for their ivory, you may not know that human-elephant conflict due to livestock encroachment now accounts for almost all of the illegal elephant killings in the ecosystem. In this video celebrating 25 years of STE, they share that between 2008 and 2018, over 1,000 park rangers were killed and 140,000 elephants disappeared from Africa.

To save the elephants, STE specializes in research. They use GPS trackers to monitor over 900 elephants in 16 countries across Africa and Asia. That provides them with scientific insights into elephant behavior, intelligence, and long-distance movements. STE works with farmers on human-elephant conflict mitigation projects, and provides education and outreach programs for communities and schools. Finally, the Elephant Crisis Fund is identifying and supporting partners in Africa and ivory consuming nations and helping them meet their goals of stopping poaching, thwarting traffickers and ending the demand for ivory.

In the last 30 years Save the Elephants has engaged more than 20,000 children in northern Kenya with their educational activities. They’ve also distributed $31m to hundreds of organizations in over 40 countries through the Elephant Crisis Fund. You can read more about STE’s impact on this page.

If you’re ready to help Save the Elephants there are several ways to do so. Shop for merch, make a donation and amplify their message on social media. Like the STE Facebook page, subscribe to their YouTube channel and follow them on Instagram @savetheelephants.

Feel Good Friday - Blind Cat Rescue and Sanctuary

It’s Feel Good Friday and time to take a summer road trip to Saint Pauls, North Carolina to visit the Blind Cat Rescue and Sanctuary (BCR).

North Carolina law allows for animals who are sick, injured or blind to be killed immediately in animal control facilities. When a 6-week old blind cat named Louie was not accepted in the shelter where the BCR founders were volunteering, they decided to take him home and soon after registered Blind Cat Rescue and Sanctuary as a non-profit in North Carolina.

The first BCR building was built in 2005 as a lifetime care sanctuary for blind cats who were deemed not adoptable by regular shelters. In 2011, they built a second shelter to provide a safe place for Leukemia positive (FELV+) and Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV+) cats who otherwise would be killed because they tested positive for these viruses.

In addition to providing homes for these cats, BCR’s website has helpful information for owners. For example, blind cats can do almost everything that sighted cats can do and will use their whiskers to navigate around objects. One way you can help them is by staying consistent with where you place their litter box and food bowls.

Cats that are FIV+ can live for years before becoming sick. Since FIV is primarily transmitted through a deep, penetrating bite, positive and negative cats can live together with no problems. While cats that are FELV+ typically have 3-5 years of healthy life, several of the FELV+ cats at BCR are nine years old.

If you’re curious to meet and support the cats at BCR you can click on their names on this page to see photos and read their individual stories. For example, Houdini is an FELV+ cat who came to BCR earlier this year after being hit by a car in Miami, and Popcorn is a cat with no eyes who has been living at BCR since she was found on a country road in 2011. Check out the live streaming cameras to see what the cats are up to. When I looked everyone was asleep but hey, cats are gonna cat.

If you’d like to support the cats at Blind Cat Rescue and Sanctuary, there are several ways to do so. Go to the open house on Saturday, August 12 and visit the cats in person, volunteer your time, donate your money and spread the word on social media. Follow BCR on Facebook and Instagram @blindcatrescue. 

Feel Good Friday - TeenLife

It’s Feel Good Friday, it’s technically still summer so let’s talk about an organization that connects teens of all backgrounds to out-of-school summer and gap year opportunities, TeenLife.

Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, TeenLife started as a resource guide. When Marie Schwartz was unable to find information on summer camps and community service programs geared towards teens, she compiled her own. The first  Guide to Overnight Summer Programs was such a success she founded TeenLife Media and has been connecting parents, students and educators to experiential learning opportunities ever since.

TeenLife provides a comprehensive online directory of STEM, gap year, pre-college, overnight summer and community service programs for students in grades 7-12. Go to the website to review flagship print guides focused on: Summer Programs, Gap Year Programs, Performing and Visual Arts Colleges, Online Learning and College Admissions. If your teen is curious about a particular profession, there are specific print guides with information on careers in healthcare, STEM, the arts and business.

You can also search through over 13,000 program options online. There are summer programs, gap year programs, after-school enrichment programs, volunteer opportunities, and information on private schools, colleges, universities and service providers. To help narrow the decisions down, you can filter by category, destination, session length, ages, cost and many more. With so many options to choose from, browsing the content at TeenLife helps teens, parents, and educators make strong enrichment-program decisions.

Some examples of the programs TeenLife connects you to include: the Sally Ride Science Academy at UC San Diego, offering STEAM workshops for students who assume the roles of space explorer, marine biologist, or computer programmer as they immerse themselves in hands-on projects; ArtsBridge Gap Year in Newton, Mass., a 15-week virtual intensive actor training program designed to be a bridge between the high school and the college experience; and the Parsons Paris Online Program, offering flexible, online courses in fashion design, business, branding, and sustainability in fashion. I’d like to apply for some of these programs myself!

By registering with TeenLife, you’ll receive news about opportunities that match your interests. If you’re not looking for a program to join but would like to support the work being done by Teen Life Media, like their Facebook page and follow them on LinkedIn and on Instagram @teenlifemedia