Students from Unity Middle School, Florida, through their community service club, The Builders Club, have raised an incredible $600 for Save the Elephants! This was inspired by “The Ivory Crisis” presentation which Singer Rankin, one of STE’s most admirable donor and friend, gave at a show in Delray this winter. Their teacher encouraged them to help save the elephants and the students decided to write letters to Senator John Kerry urging him to speak out for the elephants. Below is a letter from their teacher and a letter to John Kerry by one of the students. This has come at a time when primary school students in Kenya, through a campaigned dubbed HANDS OFF OUR ELEPHANTS have also written letters to President Uhuru Kenyatta decrying the high rate of poaching and asking the government to take action.”
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Dear Mary and Singer,
I had the most amazing day today, and I wanted to share it with you. You have both inspired me to inspire my students to save the elephants and hopefully change the course of their futures. I so enjoyed spending the last week learning all I can about the African Elephants and became more and more motivated after learning about the ivory trade. I watched the “Battle of the Elephants” last night and that really confirmed my motivation to help.
When my 7th graders walked into class this morning, they asked (as they always do), “What are we doing today?” My answer was, “Today we are going to save the elephants!” and from there we were off. My favorite moment was when the students made the realization that these elephants are so much like humans in the way they interact, especially the connection between mother and child. Even after the lesson was over, we watched more videos. It was great!
I put together a Prezi presentation filled with information, videos and hopefully inspiration. All of my students will be writing a letter to be sent to John Kerry’s office in hopes of helping these magnificent animals. I will send you both a separate email with a link to that presentation. I suggest you open it on a computer. I hope you enjoy it and feel free to share it as you wish.
Thank you again for inspiring me.
Thanks,
Barbara Ferguson
Director of Middle School
561-276-4414 ext 123
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Mr. John Kerry
218 Russell Bldg.
Second Floor
Washington D.C. 20510
Dear Mr. Kerry,
My name is Martina, and I am a 7th grader at Unity Middle School. I live in Florida, but I care very much about elephants and worry greatly about their extinction. Poaching is a major issue mainly in Africa and even China. Even though we live almost on the other side of the world, we could still make a difference. I saw this picture that showed thousands and thousands of elephant tusks and I could not believe that just two of them represented one dead elephant. Studies show that elephants actually mourn and feel sad when a family member or other elephant dies. I read somewhere that when an elephant dies, the other elephants circle around it and start feeling every crevice, every inch of its bones. I also heard somewhere that if an elephant smells you through their trunk, they will remember you for the rest of their lives. Not to mention that they love to swim in mud piles and play in the sun. If we think about it, elephants are a lot like humans personality wise. Recently on the news I saw that the prime minister of Thailand is banning ivory trade. This simple act can save thousands of elephants each year.
I am asking you to please involve the United States of America in helping these beautiful creatures by bringing an instant ban on ivory trade. These magnificent animals don’t have a voice to speak for themselves, so we must do it for them.
Thank you for speaking on the behalf of the elephants.
Yours truly
Martina Cavard