Spring 2021 Bio-Thon Fundraiser for Kestrel Educational Adventures.
June 5-6 In your Communities, together again in Nature.
"I want to live out here!" We've heard several young scientists proclaim immediately upon walking into the woods.
This spring has been one of cautious re-emergence of joy and wonder and connection. We decided to provide all our programs free all spring, to help equalize opportunities for experiencing the natural world. With the over 300 elementary students we've already explored with this month, we've chatted with song sparrows, sketched turtles, caught larval salamanders and damselflies, made maps of the plants and animals around our partner schools, installed trail cameras, and practiced tracking skills. Our new home base has already provided the perfect location for our homeschool nature awareness class, and will soon welcome many more young scientists.
Our new home will be your new home. A place where you can come and visit a fantastic array of habitats; woodlands, fields, riverside, vernal pools, and their associated wildlife. A place where our experienced instructors will hand children a net or water testing gear, ask them a big picture question, and let them figure things out for themselves and create original work that matters.
Kestrel has always put the mission first, and we like it that way. We want young scientists throughout our county to have every possible chance to decide they would like to live in the woods, or at least to have the benefits of using all their senses and their own ideas, to construct understanding of how natural systems work and what wildlife is around them.
However, we can't keep our new home unless we can raise more funds. Because most of our programs cost more to provide than we ever charge for them, we don't have a lot of money to pay for rent. We need your help to make sure this dream can continue. Fortunately, the Bio-Thon is a super fun way to help us keep our new home.
Here's how Bio-Thon works. You sign up with the "Join Us" button. You let your friends and family know you're doing Bio-Thon in support of Kestrel. Then, between June 5 and 6th, you to go out and observe and photograph or draw every living thing you possibly can.
All the funds raised through the Biothon will go towards the $10,000 we need to raise by the summer, to cover moving expenses plus a year of rent for our space.
Here's How to Get Involved:
- Join the Fundrazr by Clicking Here.
- Create your Fundrazr profile as a team member for our Biothon. It's simple and takes about 5 minutes.
- Find supporters - family, friends, and neighbors who make a pledge to support your participation by donating to Kestrel. Send your sponsors the link to your page on this campaign and ask them make a pledge before June 5th.
- Bio-thon! On June 5th-6th, go to any outdoor place you can safely explore; your yard, neighborhood, or a local park. Find as many kinds of plants and animals as you possibly can within a 48 hour period. Trees, shrubs, flowers, birds, bugs, everything goes, no matter how common. You don't even have to identify them - we can help with that. Document your findings by photographing them, or drawing them, or writing your descriptions. Note where everything was found and what it was doing.
- If you can, use the iNaturalist app to record your observations, and submit them to the "Kestrel Bio-Thon 2021" Project. Instructions on how to do that are below.
- Post your species list, photos, descriptions, or whatever you have gathered, as 'updates' on your campaign page - We will show you how!
How to Use iNaturalist?
iNaturalist is a community-driven app created by and for naturalists to share observations, where every contribution you make goes into a database that the whole community can use! Through the Projects feature, Kestrel can organize the data collected from BioThon 2021 all in one place, so your contributions can be recognized alongside others more easily than ever!
How to contribute to the Kestrel Bio-Thon iNaturalist Project:
It's super simple!
1. Download the iNaturalist app on your smartphone, and create an account like you would any social media site.
2. Open the dashboard menu in the top left corner and click "Projects"
3. Click the magnifying glass in the top right corner to Search, and search for Kestrel Bio-Thon 2021.
4.Click on our page and Join!
5. As you're taking observations, when you're entering in information about your observation, click "Add to Projects" and select the Bio-Thon!
What Does Kestrel Do?
Kestrel Educational Adventures brings science to life by bringing children into the wild places near their homes and schools and exploring with them how these places and their wildlife are remarkable, exciting, and mysterious. Since 2003, Kestrel has made a lasting impact by giving students delightful and memorable experiences in wild places that they and their families can easily revisit, and trusting them to be scientists who collect original data. We teach children that they should wander, explore, touch, imagine, and live in the natural world. We all belong in nature.
Because we believe access to the natural world ought to be a basic human right, we work hard to conduct fundraising campaigns and solicit grants to keep our prices affordable for everyone. This year, many of our programs are being offered for free to local schools, thanks to the generous support of our community. Your support will allow more children to connect more deeply to the natural world, and develop the critical thinking skills and understanding that will be essential to their future. In addition, funds from this year’s Bio-Thon will support Kestrel’s move to the Patton Homestead in Hamilton, giving our program students access to over 1000 acres of protected land to explore.
That's all! So go and see what's out there.
