Our young fundraisers, like Jack, have been working hard to raise money for the Dakatcha Woodland in Kenya. Credit: Caroline Adams
This summer, Operation Ocelot Mission Three headed out on tour to the incredible Dakatcha Woodland in Kenya.
Since then, dedicated young nature lovers have been coming together to fundraise in creative ways. £3,104.83 has been raised for the mission so far. The funds will help to expand A Rocha Kenya’s reserve in the coastal forests of eastern Africa, protecting endangered wildlife such as Golden-rumped Elephant Shrews and Sokoke Scops Owls.
Join us as we celebrate three of our fantastic Operation Ocelot fundraisers.
Mia Margo
Credit: Fay Margo
After learning about deforestation at school, 7-year-old Mia wanted to do something to support World Land Trust. She created a poster and gave a presentation to her whole church about the work of WLT, then collected donations with a collection box and raised additional funds by selling her toys in the church hall.
Mia said: “It was both fun and challenging to stand up and speak into the microphone to tell a big audience all about WLT. One of the best parts was drawing my poster explaining all about what WLT does. I was so excited when I found out how much money I had raised.”
Through her fundraising efforts, Mia raised £344.04 for Operation Ocelot Mission Three, protecting the equivalent of 13,817m2 of threatened habitat in Dakatcha Woodland. A fantastic achievement – well done Mia.
Here’s Mia’s message to other children who want to help the natural world: “If you’re worried about nature or wildlife becoming endangered and you have some ideas, you shouldn’t be afraid or shy. Try them out. If you try something and it doesn’t work, you should try another idea instead. As my grandpa used to say, ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again.’”
Roger de Clare School
Credit: Vicky Price
Year 4 at Roger de Clare organised a fundraising event where the children ran stalls selling homemade goods to collect donations for Operation Ocelot.
Roger de Clare decided to participate as part of the National Gallery’s Take One Picture project – where one picture from the gallery’s collection is chosen to inspire cross-curricular work in primary school classrooms. The children had Henri Rousseau’s ‘Tiger in a Tropical Storm’ which led to discussions around deforestation and how the children could help.
Headteacher, Laura Woods, praised the children’s hard work: “the children spent time at home making and organising their stalls themselves and we managed to find a sunny afternoon in July for the event. The children raised a whopping £1,000, which makes this the most successful child-led fundraiser the school has ever seen.”
Lillianna, one of the students particularly involved in the fundraising, set up a stall selling baked goods, cuddly toys and crochet.
She said: “It was very busy as lots of people came and we were so grateful for everyone who gave money. We were hopeful we would raise enough to save a piece of forest the same size as our school, but we were blown away when we heard we could actually save 10 acres! This is the same size as our entire school plus our community playing fields. It made me feel proud that together we could save the same size area for animals to play in too.”
A huge well done to Lillianna and everyone at Roger De Clare.
Jack Adams
Credit: Caroline Adams
11-year-old Jack is a dedicated WLT supporter, and has fundraised for Operation Ocelot Missions One, Two and now Three. In his toughest challenge yet, Jack set out to climb ‘100 Mountains in 50 Days’.
His mum Caroline described Jack as having “endless energy.” We’re sure this helped him in his impressive task, which was made even more impressive when he achieved it in half the time, climbing 107 mountains in 25 days instead of 50.
Caroline said, “the mountains Jack climbed were in Wales, across Eryri (Snowdonia) National Park, the Brecon Beacons and Black Mountains in south Wales. He’s very nearly climbed all Welsh peaks, sometimes more than once.”
Through this challenge alone, Jack raised £2,228.55 for Operation Ocelot, with £1,423.55 of the total directed specifically to Mission Three in Dakatcha Woodland.
Reflecting on his challenge, Jack said “My 100 mountains in 50 days challenge was fun, but could sometimes be hard when the weather was bad. My family were always with me keeping me safe. I would tell other young people thinking about the environment to “Just do it!” – your legs might hurt a little at first, but they’ll get better after five minutes.”
Jack will be taking on more fundraising challenges next year and we can’t wait to cheer him on.
Around 90% of the coastal forests of eastern Africa have already been lost, but through Operation Ocelot we can protect the homes of species like these Sokoke Scops Owls. Credit: Per Holmen
Everyone at WLT says a huge thank you to all our amazing young fundraisers.
If you’d like to get involved with Operation Ocelot, there’s still time to join the mission. All you need to do is measure your school, playground or chosen space to create your target and raise money as a team to save the same size area in Kenya. You can fundraise however you like, the more creative the better.
Find all the information you need to get started, as well as educational resources and fundraising ideas, here.
Every amount raised will make a big difference to Dakatcha Woodland.
To sum up with some final words from Lillianna: “I recommend Operation Ocelot because you get to learn lots, have fun and raise money to buy a piece of forest that will be protected forever – how cool is that?!”
