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The TV
series Escape to Chimp Eden in the US continues to inspire much-needed
funds for our Sanctuary.
Two US viewers
recently turned their children’s birthday
parties into fundraisers for JGI SA.
Schanna and Mark Powell of
Leesburg, Florida, asked friends and family to
donate to JGI SA in lieu of gifts for their
daughter Lily’s second birthday party. They
raised $500 (approx. R3 500,00) for us as a
result!
Lily Powell loves primates so she had a
chimp party
(Coincidentally, the birthday girl’s namesake,
Lily the chimp, arrived at the Sanctuary from Angola soon afterwards!)
“The
world is a better place because of people like
Jane Goodall and the good folks at JGI.
It is so nice to
know there are such selfless people who care so
much for our furry friends,” wrote Schannah.
Mary
Karner of
Zanesville,
Ohio,
adopted Charlie the chimp for her son when he
turned 15 recently.
Marcus van der Merwe, IT
supremo at Chimpanzee Eden and manager of the
Web cam project, organised a video of Charlie
for the occasion, and by virtue of the adoption,
Mary had access to photographs of the youngster,
who was rescued from Sudan
late last year.
“My
son's birthday was yesterday and the adoption
program was a huge hit with everyone,” Mary
wrote to Marcus in May.
“My son told me
that it was the best gift he has ever received!
I took one of the
pictures you sent me of Charlie and had it
turned into a sugar cake topper. I printed the
rest of the pictures and pasted them all over
the walls. We purchased plush chimps from
Discovery Channel and used them as party favors.
It was fantastic!”
The Adopt-a-chimp programme
gives adopters access to the Web cams at Chimp
Eden so that they can see the daily goings-on at
the Sanctuary, and hopefully watch their chimps
in their enclosures.
Mary
continued: “The cameras were working perfectly
and the daily pictures were some of the best I
have seen yet.
Everyone at the
party wanted to adopt a chimp.
They have all asked
for the info and I gladly recommended that they
jump in.
I know that I made
you crazy leading up to this and I am truly
sorry for that.
As my son so
poignantly reminded me last night, it's not
about what we get, it's about helping the
chimps. Thank you to all of you for what you do
for the chimps every day and for what you have
done for myself and my son for his special day.”
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