Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary
Today we’re thankful for love, family, and food grunts.
On today’s menu:
Field Roast with gravy
baked apples
green beans
cranberry sauce
sweet rolls
baked potatoes
roasted chestnuts
sparkling apple cider
We hope you and your family enjoy your festivities as much as the Cle Elum Seven enjoyed theirs. Happy Thanksgiving!
This is the third post for our week of thanks highlighting seven donors that represent seven different types of giving, while also highlighting the seven chimpanzees.
If you missed the first two, day one featured legacy donor Bruce Davidson + Burrito and day two featured event donor Kathy Cochran + Annie.
Today we are featuring Julie Olson who has been giving a monthly donation to Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest continuously starting in December of 2008 – that’s 107 (and counting) donations!
I really love to learn how donors have come to know about the sanctuary. This is what Julie shared about how her support began:
My sister first made me aware of the chimps by showing me the KOMO news story. I sponsored Jody for awhile as a gift to her and pretty soon I was hooked! I sponsor Burrito now and I never miss a day checking up on how the chimps and caregivers are doing.
I thought Julie’s story was particularly appropriate for Thanksgiving because her donations to the sanctuary started as a gift for a loved one.
Like Julie, many of our monthly donors give through our Chimpanzee Pal program, where you can choose one of the chimpanzees (may I suggest Jody?) to sponsor as a gift for someone else or for yourself. You can even choose to sponsor the whole family! Alternatively, some monthly donors choose to give through our general donation page, and we make it an option for special fundraising campaigns too, like the upcoming Giving Tuesday campaign!
We are so incredibly grateful for monthly donations and want to send a big thanks to everyone who gives in this way. Having that steady stream of income to rely on for the day-to-day running of the sanctuary and care of the chimpanzees provides a sense of security.
As someone who also donates to other organizations, I also like to give monthly donations partly because it’s an easy – you sign up once and everything goes through automatically unless there’s a change with your credit card or bank.
I know that Jody has directly benefited from Julie and others’ monthly gifts. Just one look at a “then” and “now” photo shows what a sanctuary life has provided for her.
Jody knows just what she wants and she lives her sanctuary life with a solid sense of independence but motherly concern for her chimpanzee friends. If I were a chimpanzee, I would definitely want Jody to be a part of my family group.
She’s not as concerned with spending time with the humans as some of the other chimpanzees at the sanctuary, which is another thing I love about Jody. She does, however give us humans the best bouncy greetings and is always eager to share her excitement about parties and meals with her caregivers. I’m about to go up to the chimp house now, and I’m willing to bet that we will share in an excited breathy-pant as Elizabeth and volunteers Patti and Grace are setting up the Thanksgiving party.
Elizabeth will be posting about the Thanksgiving festivities later today, but I’ll leave you with a few more photos of Jody.
This last photo, taken by Elizabeth last year, is the November 2017 calendar photo. I forgot to mention in our last e-newsletter that our 2018 calendar is now available for purchase!
Happy Thanksgiving!
This special day of gratitude was sponsored by dear friends of the chimps and humans, Donna and Doreen Hughes! These wonderful sisters came all the way to the sanctuary from New York City to attend a summer visit and meet the chimps they’ve been such good friends to over the years. They shared this really lovely message about today:
“On this Thanksgiving Day, we are very thankful that we had the opportunity to meet the Cle Elum 7 and the wonderful staff this year. It was a DREAM come true to meet Annie, Burrito, Foxie, Jamie, Jody, Missy and Negra…these chimps have been through so much, and it is wonderful to see them on Young’s Hill, enjoying their lives, making their own choices and living with dignity. What can we say about the staff? Diana and JB, you guys rock. And a special thank you to Katelyn. It’s always a joy to read about the Sanctuary on line, look at the photos, read the posts. To be there in person, truly a memorable event for us. It was a joy to see Foxie play with her Trolls that we brought. So profound to spend time with all of you, human and ape. We are grateful the chimps live at the Sanctuary! Happy Thanksgiving!”
Don and Dor, thank you so much for sponsoring this day – we have so much to be thankful for! It was truly special being able to meet you both in person and we are so grateful you are both in the world. All of the primates here at the sanctuary are so fortunate to have you as part of our chimp family. Happy Thanksgiving!!
Your Pal, Foxie, and friends:
