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Grants for Schoolyard Hummingbird Habitats
- To: carolinabirds@duke.edu (CAROLINA BIRDS)
- Subject: Grants for Schoolyard Hummingbird Habitats
- From: BILL HILTON JR Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History<hilton@hiltonpond.org>
- Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 13:46:33 -0500
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
We're pleased to announce that Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont
Natural History in York, SC, has received a grant of $6,000 from the
Foundation for the Carolinas Impact Fund to develop Schoolyard
Hummingbird Habitats. The Center was the only South Carolina
organization to receive an Impact Fund grant this year.
The grant is in support of "Operation RubyThroat: The Hummingbird
Project," through which hummingbirds are used to help students learn
about science, math, geography, culture, or any discipline.
The Impact Fund grant will be used specifically to involve K-12
students from York County in South Carolina, and Gaston and
Mecklenburg Counties in North Carolina. Funds will allow students and
teachers to establish Schoolyard Hummingbird Habitats at selected
schools, with the added goal of helping young people understand the
importance of protecting, rescuing, and preserving habitat for
wildlife.
When responses are received from potential participants, the Center's
Advisory Council will select up to nine finalist schools, three from
each county. Special consideration will be given to innercity and
rural schools with limited resources and/or with historically
underserved populations. It is anticipated that parent volunteer
groups will play a role in habitat installation at all participating
schools.
In a preliminary visit (mid-February 2002) to each winning school,
Center staff will provide students with basic information about
hummingbirds. On subsequent visits (late February-early March),
students and teachers will help design their respective Hummingbird
Habitats, select and install plants and hardscape (mid-March),
maintain the habitats (March and thereafter), and--as hummingbirds
are attracted to the new habitats--make scientific observations of
hummingbirds (April and thereafter).
Each school will receive up to $400 to underwrite purchase of native
hummingbird plants (trees, shrubs, and herbaceous flora), soil
amendments, and hardscape components. Each school also will receive
an instructional visit from Center staff (mid- or late-May), during
which--assuming that hummingbirds are present--students will help
capture, band, and release hummingbirds in the Schoolyard Hummingbird
Habitat.
If you are a teacher, administrator, or PTO officer in the three
counties and wish to submit your school as a possible recipient of
funds for a Schoolyard Hummingbird Habitat, visit
http://www.rubythroat.org and scroll down for more details and a
downloadable application form.
Operation RubyThroat is also supported in 2001-2002 by The
Christensen Fund (which provided a $35,000 grant), Perky-Pet
Corporation ($2,000), and individual donors ($6,000 and counting).
(Please forward this message to anyone who might be interested in
applying for funds for a Schoolyard Hummingbird Habitat.)
With best wishes,
BILL
--
BILL HILTON JR., "The Piedmont Naturalist"
Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History
1432 DeVinney Road, York, South Carolina 29745 USA
hilton@hiltonpond.org, (803) 684-5852, eFax: (503) 218-0845
Please visit our web sites at http://www.hiltonpond.org and
http://www.rubythroat.org
"Never trust a person too lazy to get up for sunrise or too busy to
watch the sunset." BHjr.