Support environmental education and our birdathon team

Dear friends and family,

As we did in 2008, Mary and I are gearing up to participate in our local “birdathon” next week and we are writing to ask for your support.

A bird-a-thon is a competition among teams of birders. Each team picks a day, a route, and a goal. On the chosen day, the team gathers hours before sunrise to listen for owls and then cruises the county until after well after sunset, looking for as many species of birds as they can find.

Ok, so that's what we’re doing. Now, why should you help? Because the Spring Birdathon is the biggest fundraiser of the year for the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society and all your donations are used for local environmental education programs. This means your donation pays for field trips, nature walks and hikes for children who might otherwise never get outside of their neighborhood or mall. Kids connecting to nature become voters protecting our open spaces and bird habitats.

There are two ways you can pledge your support – per species seen (remember, we're going for 150 this year!) or as a fixed dollar amount. Assuming all goes as planned:

* 20 cents per species becomes $30
* 33 cents per species becomes $50
* 60 cents per species becomes $90

And we promise to match your contributions one-to-one. To get our final species count, tune into birdwalker.com shortly after the big day for a full report.

You can give by check or by Paypal. Send your donations by check made out to Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society (home address: 2138 King Court, Santa Clara, CA 95051). Send your Paypay donations using http://tinyurl.com/cvbu9k – this is the birdathon donation page. Please “Make a secure online donation” after selecting Bill Walker from the popup list.

Please get your donations in by May 15th so we can submit them in a timely manner. We will be very grateful if you are able to contribute. SCVAS is a small organization and every dollar really does count. Last year, eighteen teams raised over $50,000 and we are hoping to beat that total this year.

So here's the summary: Please help us support environmental education in Santa Clara County because connecting kids to nature is the first step in conservation. We're going all-out, kind of like those crazy dance-a-thon participants in the 1940's black and white films, to convince you we are serious about this cause. Can you make a donation?

birdily yours,
-Bill and Mary