Zoo orangutans find 8-year-old advocate
Johanna Hampton of Boring, Oregon is an 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 in 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 school’s just-completed fundraiser for Doernbecher Children’s Hospital, Johanna wondered why she couldn’t raise money for the orangutans’ new home. She put together a PowerPoint presentation for Deep Creek Elementary School’s student council, proposing a “Family Movie Night” that would include a donated movie and food.
Her project received the council’s approval and served as the focus of her school’s Earth Day kickoff assembly April 16. Oregon Zoo primate keepers Asaba Mukobi and Dave Thomas brought a model of the zoo’s exhibit to the event and discussed the plight of orangutans.
Matthew Hampton said some of his daughter’s enthusiasm has been fueled by the Animal Planet series “Orangutan Island.” The show 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 6 p.m. fundraiser Friday at the school. The students also secured donations of organic fruits and vegetables from Organically Grown Co. and DiGiorno pizzas from Kraft Foods for the event.
Orangutan Outreach is the U.S. affiliate of the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, the Indonesian nonprofit that runs Nyaru Menteng. Information is available at http://redapes.org.
