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Greeting from Beaver Ponds!
Greet
Your gift is important
and will make a difference!


        Thank you for the many different ways you have          
supported Beaver Ponds Environmental Education Center
this year!

Please continue to support us by donating to Beaver Ponds during the Colorado Gives season.  
You can donate anytime through December 5 th.


Why include Beaver Ponds in your Colorado Gives Day donations?
Each of our over 1,400 visitors this past year (of whom half were young people) has their own special story to tell.  Thank you to Blue Creek Elementary, Boys and Girls Club of the High Rockies, Breckenridge Children's Museum, Bristlecone Montessori, CityWILD, Colorado Mountain College, Cottonwood Institute, Downtown Denver Expeditionary School, Fairplay Library, Guffey School, Keystone Science School, Metropolitan State University, Mosquito Range Heritage Initiative, Regis University, Sierra Club Headwaters Group, South Park RE2 School District, South Park Site Stewards, and Town of Frisco Youth Camp for making Beaver Ponds a part of your educational journey!

Some of our 2017 highlights include:

Protecting the Headwaters of the South Platte.
We received a major grant from the South Park National Heritage Area to create a Sacramento Creek Protection Plan.  This grant allows us to elevate our watershed work to the next level, through enhanced monitoring, educational outreach, and participation by citizen scientists.  Our research will serve as a baseline for future research.  We are grateful to the over 30 landowners on the watershed who gave us access to their land for measurements.

Creating New Curriculum and Resources for High Altitude Gardening and Agriculture.
Each year we learn more about the special dynamics of gardening at high altitude.   Students helped plant and harvest potatoes, lettuce, carrots, and kale.  They generated animal feed from our simple but effective hydroponic system.  A grant from the Colorado Garden Foundation for a new hoophouse will vastly increase our production capacity next summer.  And, we are excited about developing new partnerships with the local school district.

Demonstrating dozens of ways to reduce our carbon footprint.
Visitors learned the intricacies of each of our five sources of renewable energy.  What generates more energy?  Windmills? Hydroelectric? Solar panels for electricity or hot water? Geothermal?  Beaver Ponds demonstrates these options to all of our visitors.

Creating new pathways for citizen scientists to have a positive impact on our world.
This past year over 350 preschoolers to senior citizens participated as citizen scientists monitoring water quality, studying beaver habitat, and analyzing the impact our actions have on the environment. 
  

Colorado Gives Day is a statewide movement to encourage online giving.  Every donation made through ColoradoGives.org on Colorado Gives Day is boosted by the incentive fund, which increases the value of every dollar. 


Thank you for being a part of Beaver Ponds!
And don't forget to donate at:  Colorado Gives Day for Beaver Ponds

  Paul 
Executive Director
palexander@beaverponds.org.     

PS - Check the Beaver Ponds Facebook page and website for information and updates.
 
Eric with students in BP greenhouse

Citizen Scientists working on Riverwatch Sampling

Elk at BP

Fiber Class Project

Sherri Tippett teaching about Beavers

Snow Science

Meet our New Board President and our New Board Member Board
 

Board President: Lisa Bardwell

Lisa is currently adjunct faculty at the University of Denver, teaching in its Pioneer Leadership Program and consults for the reDirect Foundation

The bulk of her professional career, Lisa has held leadership positions with Earth Force, a national nonprofit focused on engaging young people in solving issues in their community. She earned her PhD from the University of Michigan and has also taught at the University of Michigan and Utah State University. She has deep expertise in service learning, leadership, environmental problem solving, and organizational culture change. She lives in Denver, Colorado and has an inordinate fascination with soccer. Lisa is committed to cultivating civic capacity and people's commitment to act in our shared interest - which includes the environment.
  
 
 
New Board Member: Jane Newman


I recently retired as the High School/Middle School Principal at South Park after 16 years.  I was originally a special education teacher in Arkansas.  I founded and was the executive director of a non-profit in Arkansas for helping graduating seniors and other adults with disabilities find jobs.  It was a supportive employment agency called H.I.R.E. (Help Individuals Receive Employment).  I worked there for over 10 years and was recruited to move to Denver and do the same thing there at a non profit.
 
Moving to Denver and a large non-profit was very different from Little Rock, Arkansas and a small non-profit.  My husband, of 47 years, and I had bought some land in Chaffee County and decided it was do or die in the mountains.  Luckily we were able to get jobs and we just finished building our second home at the top of Trout Creek Pass.  In October we will have been here 20 years.
 
Eager to stay busy after retirement, I am the executive director of the South Park Food Bank, a volunteer position.  I have also just begun serving on the Rocky Mountain Rural Health Board. 

Our future leaders
  WHY GIVE - Your Support Matters give
 
We founded Beaver Ponds with the vision to marry the environment and education.  As we developed the organization, we honed the mission statement to capture our vision and intent, which is to provide individuals of all ages the tools and knowledge to become better stewards of the earth.

Together, we can improve the quality of life for people, animals and plants - and make a lasting contribution to leaving the world a better place for the generations that will follow us.

Over the last 5+ years a great deal of effort has gone into working to achieve Beaver Ponds' mission/goal. We are particularly encouraged by the progress that has been made this past year in creating programs and engagement which are giving individuals of all ages the tools and knowledge to become better stewards of the earth.

If you follow the activities at Beaver ponds through the newsletter, the website or Facebook you know that much has been accomplished. If you haven't had a chance to follow the activities and programming at Beaver Ponds, great success has been achieved in our 6 key program areas:
    • Watershed management
    • Sustainable agriculture
    • Forest management
    • Beaver ecology
    • Medicinal plants
    • Renewable energy

In order to continue and expand this work it is absolutely essential that we broaden our donor base and increase our funding sources from individuals who believe in our mission and can help support staff and programming to create and share tools for improving the environment.

We were able to provide the foundation funding for Beaver Ponds but it now must engage people like you to help it continue its important work.

ANY amount you can provide will be most appreciated by the Beaver Ponds staff and board and, more importantly, will be appreciated by those individuals from preschoolers to senior citizens who are being provided the tools to become better stewards of the earth and are sharing what they've learned from Beaver Ponds with others who then can also become better stewards

As founders of Beaver Ponds we remain enthusiastically committed to its work but in order for it to continue to exist we need your help.

From everyone associated with Beaver Ponds we thank you for your support.
 
Al and Terry Hershey
Beaver Ponds EEC Founders

AmazonBeaver Ponds EEC is available on Amazon Smile -
donate every time you buy

AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for you to support Beaver Ponds every time you shop, at no cost to you. When you shop at smile.amazon.com, you'll find the same selection and convenient shopping experience as Amazon.com, with the added bonus that Amazon will donate a portion of the purchase price to Beaver Ponds EEC.  

To shop at AmazonSmile simply go to smile.amazon.com from the web browser on your computer or mobile device. You may also want to add a bookmark to smile.amazon.com to make it even easier to return and start your shopping at AmazonSmile.

On your first visit to AmazonSmile smile.amazon.com, you need to select Beaver Ponds EEC to receive donations from eligible purchases before you begin shopping. Amazon will remember your selection, and then every eligible purchase you make at smile.amazon.com will result in a donation.
It is an easy way for you and your friends and family
                                 to support Beaver Ponds!


events
Upcoming Events at Beaver Ponds


Public Day - Free
Welcome to the Winter Pot Luck
Saturday, November 18th from 11:00-3:00
Bring your best dish made with Colorado produced, natural foods.
If you'd like to share your recipe, we'll compile it in a recipe book
you'll get for free - just for attending. 
Prizes for Most Original Recipe and Most Yummy Dish.
We'll eat at noon and provide free tours and hikes.
  
  
 



Please support Beaver Ponds and help all of us become better stewards of the earth.

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