Primates, Podcasts, and Preservation

Up and RUNNING! Sept-Nov

Our program "Primates Podcasts and Preservation" got off to an early start and almost 30 students at Terra Environmental Research Institute formed a club, MEEP (Monkey, Education,Environmental, Protection) at their school and the initial meeting was held at the school on September 08 to recruit students and distribute applications etc. and discusses the goals of the project. A well attended check presentation ceremony by State Farm to the DuMond Conservancy was held on September 13th and by September 22nd the permanent team (of 35 student members) was announced. We then began twice weekly meetings - one at the school and one at the DuMond Conservancy. Content for the podcasts and background information about primates was discussed at the school and we filmed primates at the DuMond Conservancy and the adjoining Monkey Jungle.

December

In December, we had our first famers' market of the school year at TERRA. We managed three different booths for the MEEP club. We attarcted a younger audience with our kids' crafts booth, where children could make their very own paper bag monkey puppets and get their faces painted by our most artistic members. We also showed our podcasts to the public and introduced our cause to them. In our fundraising booth we sold pizza and donuts to support the school.

January

We kicked off the month by taking Caribbean Elementary to Monkey Jungle. Laura Saunders and Mandarin Lakes followed suit. We showed the young students around and taught them about the different primates and conservation issues that apply to them. We introduced them to King the Western Lowland Gorilla and Mei the Orangutan, two of our podcast stars. We asked some follow-up questions to gauge the students' retention. The field trip proved to foster interest in primates and conservation in the elementary students.

February-Amazonian Festival

In February, we helped the DuMond Conservancy organize their Amazonian Festival. We debuted our finalized first set of podcasts and catered to the guests and volunteers. Later, we had our second farmers' market where we again spread our message. We secured a larger audience with our new kids' craft activity: monkey cookie decorating. We showed podcast and fundraised. We secured guest speakers Angela Maldonado of the Aotus Project and Richard Kern of Odyssey Earth for our club.

View more images of the Amazonian Festival at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhlB2SB74yY

February-Second Farmers Market

On February 11th, the second farmer's market took place at TERRA Environmental Research Institute. We opened four booths which were planned to attract people of all ages. In our video booth, we showed incoming visitors our recently completed podcasts. In addition, we attracted little children with our monkey cookies and face painting area. Finally, we sold pizza and donuts in our fundraiser booth once again. We also drew some interested adults who wanted to know what the club was about. Our posterboard with images of the schools and our members brought up intuitive comments and questions that we happily answered. We also met some new contacts from different schools that were interested in seeing our videos and listening to any lectures concerning our project, the species, and their conservation issues. 

March-Third Farmers Market

On the third of March we had our third and final farmers' market of the year. Our school had an inflatable jousting arena, battle of the DJ's, and vendors/clubs (including MEEP). MEEP helped out our Student Government by selling hamburger's and hotdogs. Jorge Perdomo (MEEP president/grillmaster) served up hamburgers and hotdogs that drew attention to our club and cause. Elise Alfonso's monkey cupcakes also drew great interest. Our kids crafts section catered to children who went to the festival. We did face painting and amazonian animal coloring under the Tree of Life, the center of TERRA's outdoor communal area.