January 27, 2007 - Holiday visitors, super donors and PPIDear Friends of Jungle Friends, I hope all of you had a great holiday season and are heading into a new year filled with joy and compassion! We have been very busy at Jungle Friends (as we always are!); fortunately, we had lots of help and gifts from visitors and supporters over the holidays!
Two wonderful interns came to stay during their month-long school break and joined our staff in caring for the monkeys from sunup to sundown. Brittany was here for the third time, a glutton for punishment :-)! Her good friend Caitlin came along for the first time, and she loves Jungle Friends so much that she plans to come back in September. Another past intern, Amy, also joined us for the holidays. She came on her break from her school-teaching job in San Francisco to help out wherever she could. Our bathroom in the Volunteer Center was in desperate need of repair and we found Amy's hidden talent-sponge painting! Michael, Karen and their daughter Elyse also visited over the holidays. Michael and Karen were a great help at the sanctuary, and fixed us some yummy vegan meals, too. Since Elyse is under age and not able to work directly with the monkeys, she spent some time getting to know my grandmother. Grandma, who was an artist and art instructor, had not picked up a brush in over two years. But Elyse's enthusiasm sparked her interest, and she got out her paints and brushes to instruct Elyse.
Sanctuary Santas Our own Ms. Santa Clause -- aka Judy -- made a special visit bringing lots of toys for the monkey girls and boys! Buddie was the first to get one of the treasures and showed her gratitude with screams of delight!
Michael, a volunteer from Jacksonville, brought nuts in the shell for the monkeys as a holiday treat. Michael is shown with Laura, our wonderful intern from England, passing out the monkeys' favorite treats. Ernie prompts Laura for more nuts with his tail!
Past and future trips to PPI - a sanctuary in need In November, Rebecca, Claude and I made a trip to Texas to help out to Primarily Primates, Inc. (PPI). We spent our time there working with the care staff to help the monkeys, and building runways for their habitats. The new runway shown will allow Leroy and Danny (two brown capuchins) to move to another habitat so the care staff can clean their habitat. The trip to PPI to help the monkeys was made possible by a generous gift from Toni, a long-time Jungle Friends and Primarily Primates donor.
Another trip to PPI is currently in the works. Claude, his father, brother, our own caregiver Lee, and Hannah, a past intern, hope to make a trip to PPI next month to help build more runways for the monkeys. They plan to drive their trucks so they can take two welders to aid in building the runways and monkey stops. If you would like to make a donation to facilitate the journey, the monkeys at Primarily Primates would sure appreciate it! A financially secure Jungle Friends? This has long been our dream: to clear our debts and establish an income-generating reserve to keep our sanctuary and our monkey residents secure despite economic fluctuations and disasters that impact even our most devoted supporters. Sometimes this seemed like an impossible dream, but we dared to dream it and look what's happening! An anonymous donor has paid off our mortgage!!! Thank you so much! Jungle Friends now owns the sanctuary property free and clear! This is our first step to becoming self-sufficient.
Please help us to grow this fund for this most important goal for the future! Your gifts of stocks, bonds, or other income assets, and future gifts through charitable bequests or planned giving can help us to realize our dream and ensure the long-term survival of Jungle Friends. Lots of monkey love, |
Then Jessica, a long-time volunteer and sponsor, handed me a holiday gift of a $5000 endowment for Jungle Friends' self-sufficiency plan! Jessica and her husband Garry hope that this gift of stocks will create interest from our other donors to help with our long-term goal of generating our own funds for the continued care of the monkeys at Jungle Friends.
