NABC calendar
November 13, 2010 – 6:38 PM CST
Several things happened today—including our first major snowfall. It’s only a few inches so far, but it’s coming down fast and is the first significant accumulation. We’re thinking about the bears snug in their dens. No raking today!
The Ely Schools contest ended yesterday with second place West Hollywood Elementary School in California making a major surge—over 700 votes. But that wasn’t enough to overtake the lead you build up. Plus, you put on a surge of our own—nearly 500 votes—to assure a victory by over a thousand votes. Way to go! To see results as of just a few minutes before voting ended, check http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=164978873536722&set=o.263755115498. This will make news.
Actually it already did, in a way in this letter to the editor http://www.elyecho.com/main.asp?SectionID=17&SubSectionID=34&ArticleID=10806&TM=55221.14. Care2 will officially announce the results after they verify the votes. We heard this might take until December 10.
While it snowed, Bear Center staff were indoors adding items to the web store, including the Lily and Hope Christmas cards. All three calendars are now available for pre-order. The calendars are being printed and will be shipped in a few days. The staff feels bad that the Research Bear Calendar was announced as being available for pre-order before the others were announced. That means some of you are stuck paying double shipping if you ordered that calendar and now order the others. The way the online ordering works it is impossible to combine orders after the fact. To make up for that shortcoming, everyone who ordered the Research Bear Calendar on or before today will get a free gift with your calendar.
Also this afternoon, the Bear Center reduced shipping and handling rates. For orders up to $20, it is now $6.50 in the US, $13 to Canada or Mexico, and $22 to other countries.
A Lily fan discovered a way to raise big dollars for the Bear Center on November 16. That is the date of the GiveMN “Give to the Max Day” when the Minnesota nonprofit organization that gets the most donations of $10 or more wins an extra $20,000. Second place gets an extra $10,000. It’s not the most dollars, it’s the number of donations of $10 or more on that day—only one donation per person counts toward the contest. The North American Bear Center and the Wildlife Research Institute are both listed, but for purposes of the contest, it’s best to concentrate on the Bear Center. Only donations on November 16 count toward the big awards. To check it out beforehand, see http://givemn.razoo.com/story/North-American-Bear-Center for NABC and http://givemn.razoo.com/story/Wildlife-Research-Institute-1 for WRI. We’re in the process of updating the old information on that site.
Meanwhile, you have been participating in the “Hope for the Holidays” fundraiser the Fundraising Group is hosting. Thank you so much.
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center