We are all winners!
November 17, 2010 – 7:28 PM CST
You pulled together and gave it your all! It was a nail-biter right to the end.
At 12:12 AM, we received a gracious message from Tracy Fossum, Director of St. Olaf giving, saying, “Congratulations! It was fun to take it all the way to the end. :) The best part about today is that everyone won, especially those we were fighting so hard for. I look forward to seeing updates about Lily and again, well done!”
At 1:25 AM, Sue Mansfield sent a message to the Lily fans who coordinated the matching funds and got the word out to donate, saying “There aren’t words enough to express our gratitude for the work that went into this project. Unbelievable job – all the way around. As a ‘Thank You!’ to all fans, I will do my best to pull together a video of Lily and Hope to post tomorrow. Please keep this ‘under your hat’ in case I have technical difficulties. Great teamwork!”
Sue succeeded in getting a short video clip from October 22 posted at http://www.bear.org/website/videos-a-more/videos-/den-cam-video-clips.html and hopefully a video from September 27 (picture) will be up soon.
Thank you for your generous donations and hard work finding new donors. It is so great to be a part of this wonderful group that cares, acts, and gives it their all!
But it was a close finish, and the results are still unofficial, so we don’t want to get too excited until GiveMN verifies the unique donors and makes the outcome official.
Whether we officially end up first or second, we are all winners. The money you generously donated, the matching money that dozens of you put up, and the untiring effort you made to spread the word and generate donations shows your dedication. What a team! What a force for bears! What a difference you made in reducing the Bear Center’s debt and adding to the WRI’s Research Fund.
We believe the final tally of donations, including matching funds was $44,872 to the Bear Center and $3,397 to the Wildlife Research Institute. Thank you so much. And that doesn’t include the $10,000 or $20,000 prize money. We’re seeing a light at the end of the debt tunnel and are focusing beyond.
Thank you for all you do. This was a big one.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center