Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest

Hope. Love. Home. Sanctuary

Diana

Jamie and Foxie vs the GoPro

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If you follow the sanctuary on Facebook, you’ll know that this is posting a bit later than usual because Jamie decided she wanted to take several post-dinner walks around Young’s Hill tonight.

It’s a beautiful end-of-summer evening, so of course I could not refuse the request. Once she was satisfied, I came back in to review the footage the GoPro captured this morning.

The GoPro revealed that Jamie had quite the day. She spent a good 30 minutes on the termite mound, then decided to check out the GoPro camera, which is securely locked in a steel casing (you’ll see why below). Foxie took her turn at the camera too.

Sill image Jamie reaching for GoPro

 

Board Member Profile: Kimber Leblicq

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Learn all about our current Board President, Kimber Leblicq, in this post. This is the second post in the series profiling our fantastic Board of Directors. If you missed the first one that introduced outgoing Board President David, you can view it here.

Kimber portrait
While Kimber is just beginning a term as Board President, she has been involved with Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest for a very long time. Kimber’s professional background is in communications, marketing, and fundraising in the non-profit sector in the Northwest. She is also a compassionate advocate for animal welfare and the environment and manages to make  unique sculptural jewelry in addition to all of her other interests!

She has joked with founder Keith and former board member Mary Murray, that, if you counted the two of them, Kimber was the third volunteer for CSNW. This was before Keith purchased the property for the sanctuary, before there were staff, and before Keith had even learned about Burrito, Foxie, Jody, Missy, Annie, Jamie, and Negra.

In 2004 Mary and Keith met Kimber in a coffee shop to discuss Keith’s vision for the organization. Kimber immediately offered her skills and expertise to help advise and build what became the foundation of the organization during this early start-up phase.

Over three years Kimber and an advisory committee created a marketing and development plan; drafted a strategic plan; crafted the mission, vision, and values statements; wrote grant proposals to seek seed funding; reached out to other sanctuaries and primate advocates for a feasibility study; and set up the organizational structure to prepare for the day they were going to welcome chimpanzees. All of this preparation meant that there was already a strong organization in place before the chimpanzees arrived. And it certainly built up the anticipation for that day!

Before the Cle Elum Seven arrived in 2008, the official Board of Directors was formed and Kimber transitioned off of the committee. Kimber proudly watched the fledgling organization grow, and, in 2011, the board asked if she would like to join once again to serve in official capacity.

In her current role as Board President, Kimber is looking forward to launching our new strategic plan, which will drive the organization’s road-map for the next five years.

I’ll end with how she feels about CSNW in her own words, “Serving the Cle Elum Seven is the most important work that I have done as a volunteer. Giving them what they deserve fulfills me every day. I have a deep respect for our organization, for our staff, and for our army of volunteers who work hard to meet the needs of our chimps. Thank you also to our donors for their generous support. It’s a pleasure and an honor to work with like-minded and passionate people and thank you all for being a part of our family.”

Kimber and Medo
Elephant Nature Foundation, Thailand. Medo and Kimber

Jamie’s Brain

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You know that whole thing about right brain vs. left brain and people identifying themselves as one or the other? Well, Jamie seems to be ambidextrous-brained. You know she’s an artist because you’ve been voting for her piece in the chimp art contest every day this week, right?

Her left brain side is pretty strong, though. As J.B.’s video demonstrated yesterday, Jamie is a skilled tool user. And she loves to solve puzzles. Just watch her solve a puzzle that the human’s created for her recently:

Jamie’s sunflower seed painting

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So, by now you hopefully know that Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest’s chimpanzee boss-lady Jamie is entered in this very unique chimpanzee-only art contest sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States.

You can and should vote for her piece every day until the contest ends on August 22nd at 5:00 ET. The sanctuary that cares for the winning chimpanzee will receive a $10,000 grant from HSUS!

If you aren’t on our e-news list (which you can remedy by signing up here), or if you missed the email sent out yesterday, below is the video we shared of Jamie during the session where she created her mixed media masterpiece that is in the contest.

There are many things that I like about this video and Jamie’s approach. In particular, I like the way she carefully applies the paint to the sunflower seed shell with her finger and the way she wipes off her hands when she’s done. These are classic Jamie things to do.

I hope you appreciate the effort she put into her art and give her your vote! The voting website even allows you to be reminded to vote each day by texting CHIMPART TO 30644 (message and data rates may apply).

In other good news, MSN shared this video on their page today!

Fire and Art

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One year ago today, the sanctuary property was engulfed in flames and smoke. We thought at one point that the caregiver house that J.B. and I live in was gone (it turned out the roof and siding had caught fire, but the interior was saved). J.B. stayed with the chimps as the flames spread, and the rest of the staff watched helplessly from the road or waited anxiously for updates.

fire on hil above chimp house from highway

black earth under tire structure young's hill

It’s not a day any of us would like to repeat, but we knew the chimpanzees were safe thanks to our own protocols and the actions of the local volunteer firefighters. We can never thank Kittitas County Fire Districts (KCFD) #1 and #7  enough for what they did for us and what they do for neighbors and strangers everyday. Read the account from the Seattle Met, or, in our own words, through our blog posts.

We’ve made even more improvements to our protocols and our equipment based on our experience last year. We are still working on our future emergency preparedness while also raising money for our general operating costs, and we have a great and fun way for you to help us get a nice grant!

The Humane Society of the United States is sponsoring a chimpanzee art contest, and our resident boot-loving artist boss of the sanctuary, Jamie, has a piece entered! Voting for Jamie’s mixed-media piece will not only give her the accolades she knows she deserves, but will also give the sanctuary a chance to win $10,000! You can vote for Jamie’s piece once per day from now until the end of the contest, which is 5:00pm ET on August 22nd.

Jamie_seed_art2

Please vote today and every day and share with everyone you know via email, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc!

Window Play

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Burrito and Debbie had a fun game of chase going this morning, with Debbie running on the outside of the chimp building where the garden is, and Burrito running inside from window to window. At one point in the game, Burrito generously shared a little bit of his water.

Jamie played a bit too, but she mostly wanted Debbie to pick her something from the garden.

Board Member Profile: David Brotherton

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We have some largely unsung heroes that are a big part of Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest – our Board of Directors who volunteer countless hours overseeing the organization. We decided it’s about time we sung about them, so this is the first of a monthly series of blog posts about our amazing board members and how they became involved with the sanctuary.

We currently have ten board members and are looking to fill a few open seats. This post is about our outgoing Board President David Brotherton.

David Brotherton

David learned about the sanctuary through a long-standing board member, Bruce Wagman. David and Bruce share a love of live music and, though they live in different states, often attend shows together.

David first met the chimpanzees more than three years ago. His introduction to the group involved Jody spitting quite a bit of water on him. This baptism left him with the distinct impression that the chimps were not there to entertain, but were giving him the choice to either help out or get out. He chose to help.

David brings to the board a wealth of strategic communications experience as the founder and director of Brotherton Strategies, a Seattle-based consulting firm that works with a wide mix of grant making foundations and socially minded corporate clients. Before getting involved in public relations, marketing and brand strategy, he worked in Washington D.C. as a congressional speech writer and political reporter. Perhaps we should have him report on the politics of the Cle Elum Seven!

David has a passion for Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest and is eager to see the organization thrive long into the future with a firm strategic plan in place. He gushes about the amazing supporters of the sanctuary and describes the organization as unlike any other that he’s known or supported.

He recently served one term as the Board President and is now helping Kimber Leblicq transition into that role. His tenure as president spanned an important period in the sanctuary’s history. David helped guide us through the Taylor Bridge Fire (and not just in a governance role – he brought tortilla chips and beer to the staff and volunteers the day after the fire and allowed us a few moments of relaxation and laughter). He then oversaw the search to hire our no-longer-new Executive Director Jennifer Whitaker.

With the support of one of his clients, Provitro Biosciences (formerly known as Booshoot), David also introduced the chimps to the bamboo now flourishing on Young’s Hill, which the chimpanzees have been loving ever since. Now that I think about all he has done these past few years, I realize that I actually owe him a beer!

Feel free to leave a comment for David below this post.