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Grants for Schoolyard Hummingbird Habitats




We're re-posting the following message as a reminder that 1 February 
2002 is the deadline for receipt of applications for a grant for a 
Schoolyard Hummingbird Habitat. Please forward this message to 
interested teachers, administrators, or other interested parties in 
the counties of Gaston and Mecklenburg (North Carolina) and York 
(South Carolina).

Thanks!

-------------

GRANTS AVAILABLE FOR SCHOOLYARD HUMMINGBIRD HABITATS

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.