Hopewell Students Bring Orangutans Hope!

For the past five years Orangutan Outreach has had the amazing support of the students from Hopewell Avenue Public School in Ottawa, Canada.

Every year Hopewell teacher Ms. Marion Shynal organizes school activities and a fundraiser for Orangutan Outreach as part of Hopewell's Earth Month (April) celebration. This year students viewed a video on Earth Day of the amazing work being done to help save the critically endangered orangutans in Borneo and Sumatra. The students also viewed the video of Baby Rickina on YouTube. Rickina has become an internet sensation with nearly 2.5 million viewers. Everyone loves watching as she learns to swing for the first time! The Hopewell students have been adopting Rickina since she joined the adoption program and they never get tired of seeing her in action.

Ms. Shynal set up her biggest raffle yet this year with plush orangutans, Orangutan Outreach t-shirts, charms and other goodies. The results of the Orangutan Raffle raised a whopping $1500 for Orangutan Outreach. That's a lot of orangutan adoptions for the Hopewell students!

You might be wondering why Ms Shynal steps up every year and does this? In her own words: "The orangutan is a distant relatives of ours, but sadly they are losing their rainforest habitat due to human encroachment and so called development. So we decided to do a little intervention of our own to support the care of our adopted orangs and give them a better chance to survive in this world. We are very proud that our school is making a difference on the other side of the world!"

We couldn't agree more! Thanks so much to Ms Shynal and another inspiring group of Hopewell students for showing once again that young people CAN make a difference in the fight to save the orangutans! You all are AMAZING! {:(|}