Good morning, dear friends and supporters!
We wanted to send a big thank you and update to all of you who over the past months and years have helped to support our Junior Scientists @ Iracambi, as they equip themselves to learn about and care for the wonderful biodiversity of the rainforest.
The new semester is well under way and our teacher Diogo has his hands full with fifty Junior Scientists who can’t wait to get out of the classroom and into the field to collect data on weather, tree seedlings, soils and water and get themselves in shape for working on their very own conservation project in the Environmental Protection Areas. And thanks to our lovely Kombi van, bought with the help of friends, donors and Iracambistas worldwide, we no longer have to rely on the school bus drivers who can be temperamental when the roads are muddy!
But wouldn’t you know it, at the very moment that our Junior Scientists are collecting data to feed into the Iracambi Geographical Information System, the server which oversees all the data on our computer network is beginning to show serious signs of age! The server and the dedicated GIS computer are crucial elements in storing the data which is then transformed by our GIS specialists into maps which can be used by the local community to help in conservation planning, both in the Environmental Protection Areas and beyond.
However, the good news is that the Junior Science program has been adopted by Microsoft as part of their YouthSpark program which is aimed at equipping young people with the skills they need to enter the workplace. Plus there will be a lightning 24 hour funding campaign on April 16th beginning at midday EST, during which time Microsoft will match every donation by 50% - as long as funds last. As if that wasn’t enough, they're going to award a $10,000 prize to the organization that receives the highest number of donations! So please ask your friends, family, boss, neighbors, and every good looking stranger you meet to chip in. Every dollar counts, and each individual donation gets us nearer to winning the $10,000 prize for the most popular supported cause.
As you may suppose, Iracambi’s communications coordinator Guilherme is hard at work contacting friends and supporters across the world, and if you could help out on that day he would be a happy man! He has set himself the goal of raising $8000 to enable us to buy both a new server and a new desktop computer to store our GIS data. Donations should be made by credit card or Paypal, and in order to qualify for the 50% counterpart, they have to hit the site between 1200 midday EST on 16th April and 1200 midday EST on the 17th.
https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/brazils-junior-scientists-restore-rainforest-iracambi/
How about that for an easy way to grow your donation?! Please consider helping if you can. Any donation of any size is welcome!
Thanks so much for your help, and rainforest hugs,
Guilherme, Diogo and all the Junior Scientists
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