Nicodemus Wilderness Project

Hi Dani,

Thanks for your note and for the good work you are doing in the community.

Two dollars is indeed very little money but it becomes magnified at an organization like NWP where most everything we do is powered by volunteers. In fact, we have no full time paid staff and have managed to do everything almost exclusively with the help of generous volunteers (from kids to senior citizens). So... with two dollars we could:

1) Print and send an award certificate and an NWP sticker to a youth volunteer who completed a project. Keep in mind that these volunteers did their projects with no additional compensation except some recognition on our website and this simple letter.

2) Purchase a pair of simple canvas/leather gloves for a volunteer to use during one of our local cleanup, habitat restoration, or graffiti removal projects in Albuquerque, NM. This pair of gloves can be worn through many projects (ca. 10) and results in hundreds of hours of work completed by dedicated youth volunteers. Many kids (often from disadvantaged families) don't own these work gloves and so we provide them at no cost; in turn they provide their local community and environment with a valuable service.

3) Purchase about 20 garbage bags for volunteers to use during litter cleanups of local mountains and rivers. These bags hold about 20 kg of trash and so for just $2, nearly 400 kg of trash can be removed from the environment. What's the big deal with trash? Trash kills or injures wildlife, leaches chemicals into the environment, and spoils nature's beauty. Young volunteers work hard and accomplish an amazing amount of work.

Best wishes,
Rob

Robert K. Dudley, Ph.D., Director
Nicodemus Wilderness Project
Post Office Box 40712
Albuquerque NM 87196-0712 USA
Visit us online at: http://www.wildernessproject.org
Volunteer at: http://www.wildernessproject.org/volunteer_apprentice_ecologist