Deep Creek Elementary student leads April 25 fund-raiser for Oregon Zoo orangutans

PORTLAND, Ore. — Johanna Hampton is a petite 8-year-old with a huge passion for orangutans. When she accompanied her father, a Metro employee, to his holiday party at the Oregon Zoo last December, she was drawn to a tabletop display seeking to raise funds for the zoo’s new orangutan exhibit, Red Ape Reserve. Inspired by her Damascus school’s just-completed fund-raiser for Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, Johanna wondered why she couldn’t raise funds to help the orangs get a new home.

“She thought the orangutan habitat expansion was a great idea,” said her father, Matthew Hampton. “I told her to ask the principal, and he directed her to the student council.”

Johanna put together a PowerPoint presentation for Deep Creek Elementary’s student council, proposing a “Family Movie Night” that would include a donated movie and food. She made her pitch, and her project received the council’s approval — and cooperation.

“I think it’s pretty neat that it’s the kids who are pushing this forward,” Hampton said.

The students have secured donations of organic fruits and vegetables from Organically Grown Co. and DiGiorno pizzas from Kraft Foods for the fund-raiser.

According to Jeff Hays, principal of Deep Creek, Johanna’s project has provided a focus for the school’s Earth Day celebration.

“The student council was inspired by Johanna’s project and immediately thought it would tie into Earth Day,” said Hays. “As a Premier Green School, our students are well educated in waste reduction, and energy and water conservation, so her orangutan project helps them to branch out and think globally.”

Endangered species will be the feature of the school’s Earth Day special assembly, Wednesday, April 16, at 12:40 p.m., with Oregon Zoo primate keepers Dave Thomas and Renee Cressa appearing as special guests. Thomas and Cressa will discuss the plight of orangutans in the wild and give students a peek at a model of the zoo’s new orangutan exhibit.

Family Movie Night will be held at the school, 15600 SE 232nd Dr., in Damascus, on Friday, April 25, at 6 p.m. Entrance fee is by donation. Proceeds benefit the zoo’s Red Ape Reserve exhibit.

According to Hampton, some of his daughter’s enthusiasm has been fueled by the Animal Planet series “Orangutan Island,” which documents the lives of several dozen orphaned orangutans at the Nyaru Menteng rehabilitation center in Borneo. Johanna, determined to visit Borneo, has been exchanging e-mails with Richard Zimmerman, director of Orangutan Outreach, a nonprofit dedicated to orangutan conservation. The organization has donated a copy of the BBC documentary “Orangutan Diaries” for the Family Movie Night fund-raiser.

Orangutan Outreach is the U.S. affiliate of the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, the Indonesian nonprofit that runs Nyaru Menteng. To learn more about Orangutan Outreach and its efforts to protect wild orangutans, visit http://redapes.org.

Source: http://www.oregonzoo.org/Newsroom/2008releases/2008Mar.htm#johanna

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 17th, 2008 at 5:04 pm and is filed under Take action!, Young supporters, Zoos & Sanctuaries. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.