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:
This is the second installment in our week of thanks highlighting seven donors that represent seven different types of giving, while also highlighting the seven chimpanzees.
As I mentioned yesterday in the first post highlighting Bruce Davidson’s legacy giving, we at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest have a lot of people to be thankful for every day, and there is not a single day that goes by that I am not actively thinking about how grateful I am for all of the supporters who make up the family of the sanctuary.
Today, I have chosen to highlight Kathy Cochran for her event giving. Kathy is a retired lawyer and a current photographer (check out her amazing photography here). She was an early donor to the sanctuary, starting in 2008. Here is why Kathy gives to CSNW, in her own words,
I represented pharmaceutical companies in litigation for many years, and in that capacity learned about animal testing as a part of gaining approval from the FDA. When I heard about CSNW, I felt one way I could thank and apologize to these beings for their involuntary (and often unnecessary) servitude was to contribute to CSNW. I have since followed this sanctuary closely, and get a great deal of satisfaction knowing that this is an organization addressing the aftermath of society’s mistreatment of these intelligent and soulful beings.
What better chimpanzee to feature as the intelligent and soulful being that she is than Annie?
(above photo of Annie by J.B.)
Like many of the donors we’ll be talking about over the week, Kathy has given and shown her support in several different ways, including lending her artistic talents in designing promotional material and donating photos for our auctions. Raising her paddle during the donation portion of our gala events has been her “specialty” of sorts. Even on years when she wasn’t able to attend our gala, she made sure that there was a proxy bidder to make her donation.
Each year, auctioneer Laura Michalek has been able to leverage Kathy’s raise-the-paddle pledge to inspire others to give during the sometimes knuckle-biting portion of the auction. Kathy’s event donations have gone towards crucial general operating expenses, helped create a greenhouse out of the chimps’ original “outdoor” area, aided in the completion of Young’s Hill, allowed us to purchase and outfit a trailer into a veterinary clinic, and, most recently, have contributed to the Bring Them Home expansion fund for the chimpanzee building expansion.
That was fun to write all of that out, because it shows how integral event donations have been to the last nine years of sanctuary. Wow!
If you’re the type that plans ahead, or if you’re the type that tends to forget (that probably covers everyone, right?), and you’re able to get yourself to Seattle next spring, add the date for next year’s HOOT! gala to all of your calendars now: Saturday, May 19th.
Between Kathy today and Bruce and Burrito yesterday, I hope you are feeling the thankfulness and inspiration too.
Below are a few more photos of the beautiful Annie for even more inspiration.
This one, also taken by J.B., symbolizes how far Annie has come. Looking at her calm face as she is perched high up on the twister structure alone, it’s easy to forget the anxiety-filled Annie that we met when she arrived at the sanctuary.
Annie knows herself so much better now, and her awakening has been a beautiful experience to witness.
We have a whole heck of a lot to be thankful for here at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest. We have an amazing team of staff, board members, and volunteers, and a huge network of supporters spread all over the world.
It would take us years to highlight each donor (wouldn’t that be fun, though!). Trying to be realistic, I decided to take this week of Thanksgiving to tell, in brief, the stories of a few different donors as representatives of the many ways that people support the chimpanzees.
With seven days and seven types of donors it seems appropriate to also highlight the seven chimpanzees while I’m at it, right?!
So, today, on day one, I’m starting the week in a big way by highlighting Bruce Davidson and Burrito.
We were first introduced to Bruce Davidson over two years ago via the nephew of long-time donors Margaret Parkinson and Karen Creason. Bruce had begun thinking about getting his will in order and wanted to designate a large portion of his estate to go towards a nonprofit. Here’s Bruce in his own words,
When I saw the original KCTS piece on the sanctuary years ago I was struck by the “audacity” of a relatively small group of people with relatively limited funds dedicated to doing what they could to make a difference. “How about we start out by saving seven? Seven. That’s seven who won’t hurt anymore.” The Audacity of Hope indeed.
Bruce has visited the sanctuary twice and this last summer we were able to show him the additional parcels of land that we had acquired and were working on acquiring (more news on that soon!). Here’s what I didn’t realize would happen with a donor whose focus is entirely on a potentially large gift that will happen (hopefully) far in the future: it has been a huge source of motivation. We know that Bruce has put the trust of his legacy in the sanctuary, and we are inspired to live up to that profound level of trust.
If the need still exists, we all want the sanctuary to live far beyond our lifetimes, and Bruce is going to be a part of making this possible. Isn’t that amazing?!
If you’re curious about becoming a legacy donor, you can check out this page on our website: www.chimpsnw.org/you_can_help/single/leave-a-legacy.
So, Burrito…
This morning when I entered the chimp house, Burrito greeted me with the usual mix of, let’s call it “assertiveness” and playfulness that is his typical greeting towards me. This means that he first needs to get out a bang or a spit towards me before he gets down to the business of play. He had a big pair of plastic tweezers that he handed/pushed towards me, which I proceeded to use as a back-scratcher, finger-grabber, and stomach-tickler.
It’s just a fact that, while Burrito can be downright intimidating:
there is no way to resist his charm:
Early this morning began with a little snow, then an utter downpour, which has turned into a chilly, but sunny afternoon. Jamie, unphased by the chill in the air, has kept staff caregiver, Kelsi, busy walking all afternoon. In the meantime, the other chimps have been enjoying quiet moments with one another in sunny spots indoors.
Good friends, Burrito and Foxie, enjoying some grooming time in the greenhouse:
Annie (background) and best friend, Missy, enjoying one another’s company in the sun coming into the raceway which leads onto Young’s Hill:
Jody was also in the raceway, but decidedly NOT with a friend. When I walked up to the tunnel I saw her intently looking at something with concern while avoiding touching the ground:
The second Jody saw me coming she clung to the caging, eyes big, hair standing on end and asking me for reassurance before running inside. I thought it might be a snake and when I went to check it out I found, well, not quite a snake, but still…:
Can you tell who is who? Today at CSNW we have a challenge for you! There are four pictures and we want you all to try and guess which chimps are in the photos.
A freckled face:
Two mystery girls lounging together:
And who could be under this blanket:
Someone holding a troll doll:
Additional photos just because!
Foxie:
Jamie nestled with a boot:
Jamie finally off duty:
And last one because who wouldn’t want to see one more:
