Announcing Dates for 2009 MCLUS Trip to BEN

Next summer’s trip dates are now confirmed. June 22-July 5, 2009 will be the adventure-filled/conservation/reforestation/photographyecotourism opportunity of a lifetime. Ask anyone who has gone on these trips to the Children’s Eternal Rainforest in the past! Check out overview of the trip on www.mclus.org/eco-tourism/about/ and enjoy. Start making your plans now and ask info@mclus.org for references from past participants, if you like.

Rainforest Quilt: Successful Fundraiser

The rainforest has become a hot topic for children in Macomb, Illinois. Almost 200 students and the local Girl Scout troop have been painting and sewing a Rainforest Quilt. Local businesses were invited to buy donor squares that will have their names stitched into the quilt and create a border around the colorful squares of animals and plants of the rainforest that the children are creating. It is a true work of art with input from kids, teachers, parents, and businesses in the community. The Quilt has provided funding to help send a teacher to the Children’s Eternal Rainforest. To see more of the children’s own art work go to www.mclus.org/kids/quilt_project. For information on how you could replicate this community based fundraiser for the BEN (El Bosque Eterno de los Ninos) contact Lisa Gruver at joelandlisa@gmail.com.

Kid’s Book Project: Draw your own Rainforest Illustrations

DREAM THE FOREST WILD: How Children Saved a Rainforest by Sue Memhard with Jim Crisp. This is the remarkable, true story of how El Bosque Eterno de los Ninos (affectionately known as the BEN, in English - The Children’s Eternal Rainforest) came to be saved thanks to kids from around the world. Now, twenty years later, the lyrical story Dream the Forest Wild continues to inspire kids everywhere and invites kids to be their own illustrators. Read the story, and ask your teacher if you can be part of the KIDS BOOK PROJECT by drawing your own illustrations and going to www.suememhard.com/ChildrensRainforest/ to get them published. Then you can have a book sale of your own version. What a great way to spread the word about the BEN and be able to make a tangible donation at the same time!

The year 2007 marked the sixth full year of activity of the Monteverde Conservation League U.S., Inc. (MCLUS) since its establishment in April 2002 with its mission “to support the conservation, preservation and rehabilitation of tropical ecosystems and their biodiversity.” MCLUS officers and board members have been carrying out its mission by volunteering time and effort to present informational programs and eco-tourism activities, to carry out fundraising efforts and to provide labor, advice, equipment and funds for activities in Costa Rica and Belize. MCLUS is closely allied with the Monteverde Conservation League (MCL) in Monteverde, Costa Rica. MCL owns and manages El Bosque Eterno de los Ninos (BEN), a 54,000+ acre nature preserve - the largest private reserve in Central America.

Land Purchase and Protection Campaign (LPPC).
In April 2004 MCLUS began, with the approval of MCL, a new fundraising effort - the Land Purchase and Protection 20th Anniversary Campaign - to raise $1.5 million dollars by December 31, 2007 in celebration of the beginning of the BEN in 1987. We did not reach this high goal, but we made a good beginning and are committed to reaching it and more. The money raised by LPPC will:

• help create wildlife migratory corridors from the BEN to existing patches of remaining forests down the mountain slopes,
• buy land along the BEN’s borders that will seal off the gateways used by poachers,
• buy “inholding lands” - properties which are surrounded by the BEN,
• support MCL’s annual expenses for BEN’s protection and reforestation activities and for environmental education for the BEN’s surrounding communities, and
• create a Board-directed quasi-endowment for future Protection and Operational expenses

This was the third and final year for the LPPC annual competition among schools to
fundraise for the BEN and win the three free student ambassadorship trips.
Parents and one grandmother of the three student ambassadors accompanied their
children as part of the eco-tourism trips offered by MCLUS. The Student
Ambassadors came free and promised to share their experiences with other schools
when they returned home.

The Student Ambassadors for 2007 were:

• Ben Swank, Principia Lower School, St. Louis, MO $2746
• Katherine Phillips, Walk w/Animals Homeschool, Scottsville NY $2000
• Elaine Gorom, Hinchcliffe Elementary, O’Fallon, IL $1575

In August MCLUS once again received a $20,000 gift establishing a $1 matching grant for every $2 received for all LPPC donations (up to $40,000) during 2007.
We had 398 other donors who donated in excess of $152,500. This represents an increase of over 50% in donations for Land Purchase and Protection over last year! We were aiming for $100,000 and exceeded it.

Funds raised by the LPPC in 2007 will be spent on Pacific slope land currently being negotiated by the MCL. The priorities to be considered when selecting a piece of land to buy include how much biodiversity it has. Does the landowner have a clear title to the land? Is the price reasonable? Does the land lie within a reasonable area to be part of our cordillera to coast corridor goal?

The Dickey land given to us in 2005 on the Nicoya Peninsula is still owned by us.
The two year waiting period for resale has past. We have given the MCL authority to
pursue selling the land for us when they feel the time is right.

MCLUS Board approved a 50% for land, 40% for protection and 10% for endowment split for the monies that came in through the Land purchase and Protection Campaign. In 2007 the donation to MCL for operations for protection amounted to $61,000. $27,108 was added to the quasi-endowment retained here in the US. $137,756 was sent to MCL for land purchase and protection.

Other Donations and Assistances to MCL.

When a young man, Ignatius Piediliato, tragically passed away early in the year, his
parents invited donations to MCLUS from their family and friends as a memorial for
him. He must have been dearly loved because MCLUS received over $15,000 in
honor of him.

The St. Louis Rainforest Advocates gave $900 to send to MCL to be spent in this
way: $400 for land purchase, $400 for environmental education, and $100 for the Pro
Nativa project at Bajo del Tigre trails in the BEN.

A Rotary Club in Ohio donated $9000 for the hydroelectric project at Poco Sol.
They also sent a contingent of 9 people to Costa Rica to help lay the pipe, work on
the new building and clear trails at Poco Sol. A big thank you to Chuck Stocking
and Rotary for continuing their interest in our work.

Rachel Crandell donated $15,000 to pay the first year salary of an environmental
educator hired by MCL. Sergio is a young man with education and experience. He
has a very hands-on approach to working with young children and has begun the
enormous task of taking the message of conservation to 40 villages on the eastern
side of the BEN. MCL has been without an environmental education component for
some years now. We welcome this wonderful advance.

MCLUS Eco-tourism trips to the BEN continue to be good fundraisers and educate people about the forest and create new donors. In 2007 three trips were offered in March, July and in October (Namibia) for two weeks each with profits of almost $15,000. These profits are in addition to $200 tax-deductible gift from each trip participant amounting to $9000 more in benefit to the BEN from the 45 participants. Three trips are planned for 2008 for students from Fox River Country Day School in May, for Discovery Bound in early July, followed immediately by an open registration trip the last two weeks in July.

Rachel’s children’s book Hands of the Maya had successful sales with many copies sold by MCLUS. The profits are directed to scholarships for Maya high school students in Belize. Rachel has contributed her royalties for that scholarship effort in order to help sustain the indigenous people’s efforts to conserve and preserve their local ecosystem and way of life. In 2007 these funds provided $3,500 in scholarships to students of Maya Centre Village in central Belize. MCLUS has also channeled funds for 3 scholarships to girls from the San Luis Valley to attend colegio (high school) in nearby Santa Elena in the Monteverde Zone in Costa Rica and one to attend baking school. An additional scholarship is sending a girl from Meno Village on the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea to high school in Ambunti.

Gabe and Kristin Serafini encouraged us in a Facebook Cause campaign that raised over $1200 through an online social networking site for the BEN and has identified over 200 new individuals who have an interest in our work. This will help us grow our donor list.

In 2007 we saw more individual donors who gave between $1000 and $10,000 than
ever before. Large donations move us closer to our goals faster. We are especially grateful for the increased possibility of corporate donors spurred by the efforts of board member Tom Newmark.

Other projects and actions.
E-Newsletters are going out monthly to our supporters and interested persons via internet. The E-Newsletters are being archived on our website www.mclus.org for your updated information. Thanks go to Serafini Studios for guiding us through the computer technology maze to update our website and send out newsletters. They have billed us for only a fraction of the work they have done. Thank you, Gabe.

The Christian Science Monitor series on Global Warming started off with a front page article on Monteverde that ran for five pages on June 21, 2007. It was a wonderfully written explanation of how we know that rising temperatures on the planet are effecting wildlife. Though not specifically about the BEN, it brought attention to the Monteverde area, and our forest plays a critical role in the protection of that region. To prove that point we can look at the discovery of Mark Wainwright and Dr. Andrew Gray when they discovered the two populations of frogs that were thought to be lost, one inside the BEN and one in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve that the BEN surrounds.

UNESCO. The BEN is part of a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve called Agua y Paz. The signing of the designation was in Geneva during the visit of the MCL board members to Sweden to celebrate with Eha Kern the 20th anniversary of the BEN.

MCLUS Intern. We are especially grateful to MCLUS Board member Gay Townsend who has been volunteering for several months as an intern with MCLUS. Her environmental studies degree work allowed her this hands-on opportunity to learn how a nonprofit conservation organization works. Her help has been invaluable. We are thinking ahead as to what steps we need to take to make our organization sustainable. So far it has been largely dependent on the work of a couple of people. In order for us to have continuity into the future, to be able to sustain the BEN, we need to have a plan. Gay has guided us to several good books that are reshaping our approach to writing appeal letters and thank-yous.

Our Student Ambassadors this year have done more to spread the word than in past years. We are grateful for their enthusiasm, accuracy in telling the BEN story, and
direct contact with other children who may become supporters as well.

The Uruta Draga Project in Panama has moved forward. We were able to facilitate receiving a free lab test of the oil by the Danforth Plant Center. It is an extraordinarily good oil, not only for cooking but also for lubrication. Rogelio Cansari has submitted a budget for the project and Karin Holser is finding donors and investors for the project that will benefit the Embera people of the Darien.
Embera Stories in Spanish and English is ready to go to press. Joanna Crandell has done the layout work after many, many proof reading sessions by Spanish and English speaking friends. Rogelio has also completed the Embera transcriptions so we are getting ready to print the Embera-Spanish version. It is this version that will be placed in the village schools throughout the two comarcas in Panama.

Liability Insurance. We purchased liability insurance to protect MCLUS for our eco-tourism trips. It has been a good idea and we will continue this practice.

Monteverde Institute. We continue to facilitate transference of funds for the MVI as they do not have a nonprofit sister organization in the United States. MCLUS is happy to help support in this way the fine work this institution is doing in the Monteverde community.

2008 Fundraising Goal. In direct support of land purchase for the BEN we would like to raise $250,000 to enable the purchase and protection of corridor land on the Pacific slope of the Tilaran Mountains connecting the BEN with remaining patches of forest habitat.

Whole Foods Markets of Southern California Donation. On January 30 a 5% day at 37 WFMs raised $103,669.50. Part of the funds were to be allocated to Luna Nueva along with $17,500 raised by New Chapter to purchase land along the Chachagua River creating a corridor along the river between the BEN and Luna Nueva organic farm. Part of the funds raised were to reforest and protect the corridor. Then Luna Nueva will give the reforested land to MCL. The remaining monies will be directed to buying critical land on the Pacific slope to create migration corridors and habitat. A big thank you to Whole Foods and to New Chapter. We are awaiting a written statement regarding this proposal before allocating the funds.

Clarification of MCL Priorities. Statement from Julia Matamoros regarding the most urgent needs of MCL so that we can be supporting their mission in the most helpful ways. This will include a decision on how to set up the endowment in a more binding way and whether or not we need to hire a lawyer to help with this step.

The Big Hike. On February 5 and 6 a group of 23 hiked from the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve across the BEN to Poco Sol. CEOs of Seventh Generation, Whole Foods US, Whole Foods Southern California, Pet Promise, Kopali Organics, Nude Cosmetics, New Chapter, a reporter and photographer from the New York Times, and numerous good friends from MCL made the hike. New friendships were formed that may be very useful to MCLUS in future fundraising. An article appeared on the front page of the second section in the New York Times on March 1 that got our name out there.

The Hollywood Gala. On May 8 there will be a fundraising party a Creative Artists Agency in Hollywood with a video prepared by Mark Wainwright and Alex Villegas called “Stranded” to tell the urgent story of the need for creating Pacific slope corridors. Movie star, Daryl Hannah, will be the mistress of ceremonies. Tom Newmark is spearheading the gala with lots of help from his daughter and sons and many recruited friends.

The Forever Forest: Kids Save a Tropical Treasure by Kristin Pratt-Serafini and Rachel Crandell is in bookstores now to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the BEN. It is a gorgeously illustrated children’s book that will tell the story of the BEN to countless children who are already fans of Kristin’s books. The Forever Forest sells for $16.95. If purchased in bookstores Rachel will receive less than $.50 to donate to the BEN. However, if purchased directly from MCLUS, we will receive $8.50 as a donation to the BEN from each book. $20 will include postage and an autographed copy. Kristin accompanied the March 2007 trip to the BEN and began her paintings and research in situ.

Sister City, Estes Park, Colorado. Nick Mole from Estes Park made a film called “The Monteverde Experience” shown in Colorado celebrating Monteverde as their Sister City. Nick has sent us a copy of the DVD. It is well done and should promote the BEN and bring us some good publicity.

Summary. The MCLUS officers and Board of Directors are pleased with our continued progress and can foresee growing benefits to the BEN and every other activity which MCLUS supports. We raised more money than any previous year. Prominent articles featuring forests in Monteverde appeared in two very prominent newspapers, and a new book has just come out for children about the BEN. That is a lot of public awareness about our work. We have deep and constant gratitude for the faithful and willing support of so many who have responded to our requests.

Treasurer’s Report for FY2007 - Available on request to: info@mclus.org

The year 2006 marked the fourth full year of activity of the Monteverde Conservation League U.S., Inc. (MCLUS) since its establishment in April 2002 with its mission “to support the conservation, preservation and rehabilitation of tropical ecosystems and their biodiversity.” MCLUS officers and board members have been carrying out its mission by volunteering time and effort to present informational programs and eco-tourism activities, to carry out fundraising efforts and to provide labor, advice, equipment and funds for activities in Costa Rica and Belize. MCLUS is closely allied with the Monteverde Conservation league (MCL) in Mont3everde, Costa Rica. MCL owns and manages El Bosque Eterno de los Ninos (BEN), a 54,000+ acre nature preserve - the largest private reserve in Central America.

Land Purchase and Protection Campaign (LPPC).
In April 2004 MCLUS began a fundraising effort - Land Purchase and Protection 20th Anniversary Campaign - to raise $1.5 million dollars by Dec. 31, 2007 in celebration of the beginning of the BEN in 1987. The money raised by LPPC will:

• help create wildlife migratory corridors from the BEN to existing patches of remaining forests down the mountain slopes,
• buy land along the BEN’s borders that will seal off the gateways used by poachers,
• buy “inholding lands” - properties which are surrounded by the BEN,
• supportMCL’s annual expenses for BEN’s protection and reforestation activities and for environmental education for the BEN’s surrounding communities, and
• create a Board-directed quasi-endowment for future Protection and Operational expenses

LPPC has included an annual competition among schools to contribute money by
April 22, celebrated as Earth Day in the United States. A total of $ 8895.70 was
donated by 19 schools from 13 states during the second year of the contest. Parents
of the three student ambassadors accompanied their children as part of the eco-
tourism trips offered by MCLUS. The Student Ambassadors came free and promised
to share their experiences with other schools when they returned home. The Student
Ambassadors for 2006 were:

• Dylan Sheets, Principia Lower School, St. Louis, MO $2896.99
• Madeline Petrie, Little Red School House, New York, NY $859
• Ellen Terry, Eckstein Middle School, Seattle, WA $764

In August MCLUS once again received a $20,000 gift establishing a $1 matching grant for every $2 received for all LPPC donations (up to $40,000) during 2006.
363 other donors donated in excess of $92,528 throughout the year with over $45,333 being received after the November annual appeal letter was sent insuring that the January 2007 LPPC payment would be met.

In October New Chapter, an organic vitamin company whose Costa Rican farm almost borders the BEN, gave us $15,000 and then only two weeks later gave us another $4,500. They are our first corporate sponsor!! Thank you to Peter Raven for suggesting that Dwight and Rachel meet Terry and Tom Newmark. Tom is the president of New Chapter and outlined a plan whereby his company immediately began raising money for the BEN. It has been pure pleasure and benefit for the BEN ever since. The company’s dedication to tropical conservation will continue to benefit our forest in the future. It’s a joy to have such good “neighbors”.

With the LPPC and New Chapter’s extraordinary gifts we were able to raise enough money not only to make the January 2007 second payment on the Santamaria property, but enough to make the January 2008 payment as well. We are now awaiting word from MCL as to which piece of land will be the object of their next purchase. It might be a corridor piece on the Pacific slope. An older woman who is finding it more difficult all the time to live alone on her farm has asked the Monteverde Conservation League to buy her 100 acre farm which is half forest and half pasture. She plans to move in with her daughter and would use the proceeds from the sale to help her daughter’s family. After her hand was crushed in a sugar cane press, she was no longer able to milk her cows and do the farm work on her own. This would be a piece of land that we could reforest and create habitat from the seeds of the remaining forest, an idea we have been committed to from the beginning, as well as be a help to a Tico family. The landowner wants the land to go to conservation.

In September 2005 MCLUS received from Paul Dickey a donation of 59 hectares of land on the Nicoya peninsula in Costa Rica. A recent audit required that the land be appraised professionally. It was originally said to be worth $36,600, but thought to be more valuable, maybe worth $145,000. But the appraiser officially valued it in 2006 as worth almost $3 million. We are holding the land for two years and then plan to give it to the MCL.

As per allocations designated by the Board for LPPC (50% for land, 40% for protection and 10% for endowment) the 2006 donation to MCL for operations amounted to $29,224. $7306 was added to the quasi-endowment and $36,530 was sent to MCL toward the purchase of the Sr. Santamaria’s piece of land inside the BEN.

Other Donations and Assistances to MCL.
MCLUS offered a challenge grant of $4750 to the Board of MCL to make improvements on the San Gerardo Field Station to make it more ready for eco-tourism. Eco-tourism allows the BEN to pay for itself, being a sustainable way of producing income from the forest for the forest. Ecotourism also will increase public awareness of the value of the BEN and the conservation efforts of the MCL. Dwight donated $4750 personally to be matched by another $4750 from MCLUS to cover 2/3 of the proposed project costs. The MCL Board accepted our challenge and is working to raise their part, the additional $4750. So far our funds have provided two new trailers, tile in the shower stalls, hydrological study and pelton wheel in an effort to generate hydroelectricity for the San Gerardo field station to provide hot showers, electric lights and refrigeration.

MCLUS has helped to facilitate a second loan of $50,000 and another one for $20,000 to MCL at a better interest rate here in the U. S. than MCL was getting for the same loan at BancoNacional in Costa Rica, saving MCL substantial money. In all $120,000 has been loaned by individuals to MCL. The repayment of these loans is being done through MCLUS in order not to transfer funds to Costa Rica and then back again paying for bank transfers and money exchange twice. We are also paying the bills to the Wilderness Medical Association to provide the Wilderness First Responder course offered by MCL in the BEN. This cuts costs for MCL when paying bills in the U.S. We are also glad to continue to provide the service to the Monteverde Institute of processing their donations and course fees through our non-profit organization giving their donors tax-deductible donation status.
Rachel Crandell’s talks, book sales and eco-tours.
MCLUS continues to offer eco-tourism trips to the BEN as a fundraiser. In 2006 two trips were offered in June and in August for two weeks each with profits of almost $16,000. These profits are in addition to $200 tax-deductible gift from each trip participant amounting to $5,600 more in benefit to the BEN from the 28 participants. Three trips are planned for 2007, two to Costa Rica (one for teachers from Portland, OR) and one to Namibia in October. Two trips are already scheduled for 2008 for students from Fox River Country Day School in May and for the St. Louis Zoo trip in July. Rachel’s classes and talks given to schools and groups around the country brought in over $7000 in 2006.

Rachel’s children’s book Hands of the Maya has had successful sales with many copies sold by MCLUS with those profits directed for scholarships for Maya high school students in Belize. Rachel has contributed her royalties for that scholarship effort in order to help sustain those indigenous people’s efforts to conserve and preserve their local ecosystem and way of life. In 2006 these funds provided $3,500 in scholarships to students of Maya Centre Village in central Belize. MCLUS has also channeled funds for 3 scholarships to girls from the San Luis Valley to attend colegio (high school) in nearby Santa Elena in the Monteverde Zone. An additional scholarship is sending a girl from Meno Village on the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea to high school in Ambunti.

Other projects and actions.
Earth Day postcard appeal was just sent out a few weeks ago. This second mailing each year continues to bring in added funds from our faithful supporters. The message read:

Happy Earth Day 2007
Good News for El Bosque Eterno de los Ninos (BEN) in Monteverde, Costa Rica

Thanks to your strong response to the Land Purchase and Protection Campaign we paid off the in-holding piece of 250 acres of forest, the first land purchase added to the Children’s Eternal Rainforest since 1995!
Please join us in raising $100,000 in 2007 to purchase and protect corridor land for endangered species providing connected habitat between remaining forest fragments on the Pacific slope of the BEN essential to migrations. The sooner we buy, the more we can buy and protect. Land prices only go up.

A side benefit from the audit was their recommendation that another person be involved in keeping track of the finances besides a husband and wife team. Jocelyn Quinto of our Board has willingly offered to review the finances periodically so that there is increased board oversight.

It has been five years since we received for our tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization from IRS, and therefore time to have our status reviewed for continued recognition by IRS. We are working through that process now.

E-Newsletters are going out periodically to our supporters and interested persons via internet. The E-Newsletters are being archived on our website www.mclus.org for your updated information.

UrutaDraga Project in Darien of Panama. Rogelio Cansari, head of the NGO, Water and Plants, an Embera Indian organization, has proposed a sustainable use of trupa palm fruits to extract a high grade nutritious oil for cooking. These indigenous people have the traditional knowledge to harvest and process the palm that is now endangered. They want to bring it back from the brink of extinction, plant it in plantations on land that was cleared in the past, harvest it, process it, and sell it. This would bring economic benefit to the people, save the species, and bring respect to the traditional knowledge. The Embera name for trupa palm is Uruta. The scientific name is (Oenocarpusbataua). The Panamanian government has rejected their grant proposal of $49,000 to support the project. MCLUS could be a facilitator by allowing donations from those interested in supporting this project to be given though our non-profit organization.

Saving the Embera Stories of TiempoAntiguo. Rachel has been asked by the Embera to help them record their stories that have never been written down and print them in a trilingual book. She has video-taped storytellers telling 89 stories in a dozen different villages along the Sambu River in Darien, Panama. Working with Rogelio Cansari as transcriber and translator, they now have 31 of the stories in Embera, Spanish and English. Embera artists are working on illustrations for each story. They hope to publish volume one within the next year and would like to accept donations for the publishing through MCLUS.

BEN School Contest Final Year. Our Student Ambassadors have had a wonderful time visiting the BEN, but because this effort has not brought in many additional schools to fundraise, and because it costs us to give away these trips, we recommend discontinuing the contest.

Reprint Brochure. It’s time to reprint our handsome brochure. We have gotten many admiring comments on the design done for us by Karen Shanuik. With some slight changes in wording, we reprinted including a supply for New Chapter to distribute in their outlets around the country.

2007 Fundraising Goal. In direct support of land purchase for the BEN we would like to raise $100,000 to enable the purchase and protection of corridor land on the Pacific slope of the Tilaran Mountains connecting the BEN with remaining patches of forest habitat.

Grant Applications and Inquiries. In 2006 MCLUS assisted MCL in applying for an $80,000 Tourism Cares international grant program. The application was unsuccessful, but we actually made a grant application after several years of non-activity in this area.

Collecting the Reminiscences in Celebration of MCL’s 20th Anniversary. Rachel has requested past members, board members, staff and volunteers of MCL to submit their individual stories and reminiscences to be included in a History of MCL, First 20 Years. Leslie Burlingame has volunteered to coordinate the collection and writing including annual reports and interviews.

Liability Insurance. We are investigating the possibility of carrying trip liability insurance to protect MCLUS.

Megafauna. MCL has partnered with the Monteverde Cheese Factory to create along the Pan American Highway a tourist attraction that consists of a trail winding through the woods with over 30 life-size statues of prehistoric creatures that would have (mostly) lived in Costa Rica millions of years ago. The Mega Fauna Theme Park is attracting a lot of attention and dollars. The statues were paid for by a member of the MCL board. The land belongs to the Cheese Factory. They bulldozed the road and will hire the guides. The revenues will be shared, and MCL’s part will be used to provide environmental education in the Monteverde Zone. The MCLUS trip to Costa Rica in March visited the Mega Fauna park.

UNESCO World Heritage Site. Letters have been written by Peter Raven, Rachel Crandell and many others to recommend the BEN to UNESCO for designation as a World Heritage Site. President Oscar Arias is in favor of this idea and has begun the process of nominating the BEN. This process can take some years.

Sister City, Estes Park, Colorado. Nick Mole from Estes Park made a film called “The Monteverde Experience” and will be shown in Colorado celebrating Monteverde as their Sister City. Nick has offered to send us a copy of the DVD. It should promote the BEN and bring us some good publicity.

Dickey Land. We have held the Dickey land for almost two years as we were required to do. It is unclear at this moment whether or not it will be more advantageous for us to give it to MCL and let them sell it, or if MCLUS should sell it and give the money.

Summary. The MCLUS officers and Board of Directors are pleased with our continuing progress and can forsee growing benefits to the BEN and every other activity which MCLUS supports. We have deep gratitude for the faithful and willing support of so many who have responded to our requests.

Treasurer”s Report for FY2006 - Available on request to: info@mclus.org

Fox River Kids Help with Reforesting Pastures

Students from Fox River Country Day School in Elgin, Illinois came again to the Children’s Eternal Rainforest. Their teachers had prepared them well, so they were ready to take in what the forest had to offer. Expert guides taught them on site about bats, birds, bugs. Well, about mammals, amphibians and plants, too. They did a land use study, helped plant 195 native trees, hiked a lot, played soccer with local Tico kids at a rural school, went on a night hike, climbed to the 200′ tall waterfall for a swim, watched Volcan Arenal erupt, learned to make tortillas, rafted a river and kept extensive nature journals. Learning about the forest while in the forest is the best!

The Forever Forest Goes Home to Monteverde

Rachel got to hand-deliver autographed “thank you copies” of the new book about the Children’s Eternal Rainforest, The Forever Forest: Kids Save a Tropical Treasure, to a dozen expert friends in Costa Rica who advised Kristin Pratt Serafini and Rachel during the preparation of the book. Wolf Guindon, who was a huge facilitator in the early purchasing of the land for the children that created El Bosque Eterno de los Niños, is also celebrating the publication of his new biography,Walking with Wolf, by Kay Chornook. The Forever Forest is available through MCLUS for $20 including postage and handling. Simply mail your check to MCLUS, 1128 Weidman Rd., Town and Country, MO 63017.

Hollywood Gala Big Success

Thousands of dollars were raised at the Gala sponsored in large measure by New Chapter and Whole Foods Markets and Creative Artists Agency. To set the stage, images of wildlife from the Children’s Eternal Rainforest were projected on the huge wall above the dinning tables. Orchids graced each table. Violin music wafted through dinner conversation. The inspirational beginnings of the BEN by the Swedish kids were provided by Rachel Crandell. Stirring appeals were delivered by Tom Newmark, Michael Besancon, Anthony Zolezzi and TV celebrity, Suzanne Somers. These remarks and the premiere of Mark Wainwright and Alex Villegas’ video “Stranded” brought the realities of the plight of migratory species in the BEN to the hushed audience who now understands better why tropical rainforests are critical to the health of the planet. The BEN made many new friends on May 8 and a big stride toward funding land purchase on the Pacific slope. Thanks to the many generous donors, we raised over $40,000. This will enable us to take a big step forward with negotiations for land purchase that will reforest wildlife corridors and suck up carbon.

Quilt Project to Help Send Teacher to the Rainforest

A quilt-making project launched on Earth Day in Macomb, Illinois invites children and adults to participate by painting fabric squares with animals and plants from the Children’s Eternal Rainforest. Over 100 of these squares will surround a central painting on fabric brimming with wildlife. Sponsorships for the quilt and donations are raising the money that will be shared between a scholarship for a Macomb teacher to go on the MCLUS conservation/adventure trip July 14-27 and funds for environmental education programs in Monteverde, Costa Rica. When the quilt is completed, it will be displayed in the Macomb Public Library and borrowed by classrooms when they are studying about the tropical rainforest. Mary McMahon has been selected as the winning teacher this year. She has started to pack her backpack!