VOTE for the ANCIENT FOREST ALLIANCE to receive up to $10,000 from local Victoria beer company Phillips Beer. $10,000 would be a HUGE sum for us – worth about 25% of our entire funding so far this year!
While most cross-Canada cyclists are wrapping up their journeys right about now, the curious duo of a musician and a wildlife biologist find themselves smack in the centre of the country, shivering in an uncharacteristically chilly early September evening.
If simple distance were the aim of Nigel Jackett and Jaime Hall, the 8,000 kilometres they’ve already travelled since April would have already have delivered them to the coast of British Columbia. On a mission to sight as many bird species as possible in their travels as way to raise money and awareness for The Ancient Forest Alliance, they expect to travel 11,000 kilometres before they’re finished.
Jackett, a wildlife biologist from Western Australia and his partner Hall, originally from B.C. are young, fit and passionate advocates of preserving B.C.’s remaining old growth rainforest habitat and advocating for sustainable logging practices in those areas.
“We’re the first people to ever ride across Canada bird-watching,” said Jackett. “Most people are finished in three months or less. We’ve already been going for four months.”
“You have to get into all sorts of habitat in order to get your bird list,” adds Hall.
So far the list consists of 239 species, the most recent of which, a black-billed magpie, was spotted near Wabigoon. They say they hope to reach 400 species before finishing their journey.
“We still can if we get to B.C. before a lot of the birds that summer over there head south in the fall migration,” said Jackett. “Manitoba holds a lot of different birds, so it’s conceivable that we can get to 400.”
While in northern Ontario, Jackett says they are ever on the lookout for a Great Grey Owl and the American Three-Toed Woodpecker.
A singer-songwriter, music has been helpful in helping Hall communicate their mission to others.
“We did a living room concert in Thunder Bay, which was really cool,” said Hall. “We got to talk to people about what we’re doing. They played a bit of one of my tunes on CBC (radio). There’s sprinklings of it here and there, but my music is definitely not the focus of the ride.”
Hall has put some of her songs on the duo’s website, offering downloads for donations.
Check out Nigell Jackett and Jaime Hall’s website, or donate to their cause at www.tilthelasttree.com.
Link to original article: https://thedrydenobserver.ca/2011/09/7308/
Finding a cause you really believe in can be hard, but one Victoria native and one Aussie are making tough activist work look easy.
Jaime Hall and Nigel Jackett are so committed to supporting the Ancient Forest Alliance, they’ve dedicated six months of their lives and $10,000 of personal funds to cycle 7,500 kilometres across Canada to raise awareness for the AFA’s Vancouver Island cause. Last May, the two flew from their home in Australia to start the trip in St. John’s, N.L., and they’re set on raising $10,000 by the time they cycle into Victoria this fall.
Cycling across Canada “has been a dream of mine for a long time, but we just needed to find the right reason to do it,” says Hall, 25, a musician who grew up here. “There are so many issues out west that a lot of the country doesn’t know about, even though it affects us all. This has been a wonderful way to spread that knowledge.”
The two are linking their adventures with the audience through their blog, tilthelasttree.com, and have requested pledges every time they spot a new species of bird. When Monday first talked to the pair, they had spotted 168 species and had raised $1,300 — and they’d only reached New Brunswick. Now, they’ve counted 240 different birds, and have topped $2,140 in Ontario.
“Ken Wu and the Ancient Forest Alliance have put such a lot of work into this really great, passionate organization, and we thought that donating our cause to them was a perfect fit,” says Jackett, 27, a bird biologist from Australia who studied and surveyed for the B.C. government on Vancouver Island.
Ken Wu, founder of the AFA, says the organization is thrilled with the committed support, as well as the way Hall and Jackett are working to raise awareness to issues that can be hidden from the rest of the country. Hall met Wu about five years ago, and the two have conversed on wilderness and eco-awareness matters ever since.
“Their goal is to raise $10,000 for us, which would be huge, as in 2010 we ran the whole organization on just over $50,000,” says Wu. “We’re totally grateful to have as informed and dedicated supporters as Jaime and Nigel helping to raise funds and awareness for our campaign.”
This year, the AFA has been focused on working with the Hul’qumi’num Treaty Group, a First Nations band between Shawnigan Lake and Nanaimo, in their bid to stop large-scale clearcutting of the former TimberWest lands — lands which were sold to two public sector pension funds without consultation of local First Nations. The AFA has also kept up awareness hikes for Avatar Grove, the Port Renfrew forest that largely put the group in public radar, and has been planning a major rally for September.
To make a donation or download Hall’s by-donation songs, visit tilthelasttree.com.
Link to original article: https://www.mondaymag.com/articles/entry/eco-cyclists-on-cross-country-trek/news/
A Saanich-based company has set out to revolutionize non-profit fundraising, and they’ve turned to Facebook to do it.
On Sept. 8, Donate2Play Media launched its first social media game, a collaboration with local protectors of old growth forests, the Ancient Forest Alliance. The anagram game for Facebook, Wordraiser, combines images, facts and a petition related to the organization’s work, while prompting players for small donations to continue playing.
“Over beers we stumbled upon a concept where we use online gaming to generate funds,” said Adrian Pereira, one third of the team behind Donate2Play, along with his wife Kelly Pereira and friend Tomas Ernst. “It hadn’t actually been done before where we take a charity’s brand and make a game around the brand, integrating donating into the actual game.”
Donate2Play intends to continue covering the initial start up costs of developing games as they did for the Ancient Forest Alliance, while splitting revenue with non-profits in what Pereira describes as a no-risk business model.
“Essentially, Donate2Play is about trying to free (Ancient Forest Alliance) up from the headaches of traditional fundraising, so they can go out and do the work that they do really well, which is discovering new old growth forests,” Ernst said.
While the concept was in development, Ernst went on a nature walk with Ken Wu and TJ Watt, founders of the Ancient Forest Alliance.
“This is an non-profit that’s already thinking outside the box,” Ernst said. “They’re already forming alliances with typically untraditional partners for a non-profit.”
While players unscramble words in Wordfinder, they’ll be shown images of some of B.C.’s biggest trees, but if they lose, they’ll be subject to viewing images of some of B.C.’s biggest stumps, photographed by Watt for the tricky and challenging anagrams, he said.
“People have been quite generous so far, but it’s nice any time you can create a new and innovative avenue to bring in funds, especially if it involves entertainment,” Watt added.
Donate2Play hopes to tailor games to organizations globally across the non-profit sector. The company can be found at www.donate2play.com. Visit www.ancientforestalliance.org for more information on the Ancient Forest Alliance.
Link to original article: https://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_south/saanichnews/news/129632158.html
Determined to remove or at least reduce the cap-in-hand approach to fundraising used by charities and notfor-profit organizations, a new Victoria company is taking the fundraising campaign to social games on Facebook.
Donate2Play Media, founded by Tomas Ernst, Adrian Pereira and Kelly Pereira, has launched a program to help not-for-profit organizations raise money by tapping into the massive online social-gaming scene.
The company launched the first of those games Thursday – Wordraiser on Facebook – customized for the Victoria-based Ancient Forest Alliance.
According to Ernst, Donate2Play is about “empowering organizations like the AFA to spend less time chasing money and more time doing what they do best.”
“It’s a new channel to raise funds. Online social games are a billion-dollar industry,” he said, noting they hope to funnel a small fraction of that to organizations like the AFA. “Our goal is to create fresh, online social games that are fun and exciting to help them grow their revenue stream and activate their membership base.”
The Wordraiser game challenges players to create words from a jumble of letters. Players graduate through levels by finding a word that uses all of the letters provided. The game also offers facts and images to raise awareness of the province’s old-growth forests.
The money is raised when players are prompted to donate at certain levels.
The donations start at $1 and can go up to $20. The money donated is split 50-50 between the organization – in the case of Wordraiser that’s the Ancient Forest Alliance – and Donate2Play.
“We don’t want to cannibalize their other donation avenues, this is about augmenting the traditional fundraising channels,” said Ernst who suggested this kind of donating is a lot like dropping spare change into a box at any retail outlet. “We want to tap into the high volume of online users and tap into micropayments, as not everyone has $1,000 to give.”
“This is a great way to reach a new demographic of people, especially ones who may not be aware of the threat to our old growth,” said TJ Watt, one of the co-founders of the AFA, which works to protect old growth forest in the province. “And there’s a powerful ability to share the game with Facebook friends.”
Neither the AFA nor Donate2Play could estimate what kind of money they expect to raise through the game.
“We hope to scale to multiple charities across many causes, we expect big things out of it,” said Adrian Pereira, who noted it’s not all about money. “This is also about building awareness and increasing the support base for the charity.”
Ken Wu, co-founder of the AFA, said the organization is acting like a bit of a guinea pig.
“We don’t know what this will mean for us, but the beauty of it is we don’t have to pay anything, they put in all the risk,” he said, adding the AFA raised about $60,000 last year through traditional channels and expects to raise as much as $90,000 this year. “And hopefully this helps with that, this is a new revenue stream.”
Donate2Play would not divulge what it paid to create the game, other than saying it was costly.
In a 2009 article, Gamepro.com estimated the cost of developing a Facebook game at anywhere between $30,000 and $300,000 over a six-month cycle.
“But we think it’s worth it when you look at the explosive growth online, when you look at games right now,” said Ernst
Link to Times Colonist article not available anymore.
For Immediate Release
September 8, 2011
New Company Develops Online Games for a Better World
First new game helps non-profit organization to protect British Columbia’s old-growth forests!
Victoria, Canada – Fuelled by a desire to make a difference, a Victoria, B.C. company is out to create a new way for charities and non-profit organizations to raise funds. Donate2Play Media (https://www.donate2play.com/) creates fun social games for charities. Through the incorporation of fun facts, compelling imagery and the viral nature of social media, Donate2Play provides a novel and lucrative fundraising channel for charities of all varieties.
“Online gaming is one of the largest industries on the Internet, generating tens of billions of dollars in revenues annually – why not funnel some of those revenues towards making the world a better place?” asked Kelly Pereira, Co-Founder of Donate2Play. “Our games will not only raise funds, but also increase awareness about the specific causes promoted by the charity at hand.”
“Wordraiser”, Donate2Play’s inaugural game (see https://www.wordraiser.com) is customized to their first non-profit partner, the Ancient Forest Alliance (https://16.52.162.165/), a Victoria-based environmental organization working to protect British Columbia’s endangered old-growth forests. Wordraiser is a skill-based game for Facebook users in which players solve anagrams to pass through levels, while learning about the Ancient Forest Alliance’s cause. Using Donate2Play’s patent-pending model, players are prompted to donate at key junctures in the game – for donation amounts equal to pocket change.
“We’re very grateful to Donate2Play for choosing us as their first beneficiary. Not only will the game raise greatly needed funds for us, but will also raise awareness among new people on the plight of British Columbia’s endangered old-growth forests by using our photos, environmental fun facts, and petition in the game,” stated TJ Watt, co-founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance. “We’ll be asking our Facebook supporters and the environmentally-minded public to play this game as a contribution to our organization – and to have fun and learn at the same time!”
Donate2Play seeks to help alleviate the headaches of charities from traditional fundraising campaigns: perpetually requesting donations, investing in advertising and finding sponsors. The Donate2play model provides a fun, fresh and engaging way for charities to raise funds, while capitalizing on the growing trends of social media and online gaming.
The first beneficiary of this new model, the Ancient Forest Alliance, has been working through public education and mobilization calling on the BC government to protect the province’s endangered old-growth forests, ensure sustainable logging of second-growth forests and ban raw log exports. Of particular note, the organization has built huge public momentum for the protection of a grove of old-growth trees nicknamed the “Avatar Grove,” near the town of Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island.
Donate2Play was the brainchild of Victoria residents Tomas Ernst, Adrian Pereira and Kelly Pereira. Ernst, having spent the last five years working on development projects in the South Pacific for the World Bank, realized the need for NGOs to develop new, more effective fundraising channels. “Having worked with a number of charities, I’ve always felt the process of giving needed a rethink. So we asked, how could we transform the traditional fundraising process and offer a more value-added experience to the donor?” said Ernst, Co-Founder of Donate2Play Media.
Together with the Pereira’s, who have over a decade of entrepreneurial experience building successful online businesses, the idea to bridge the gap between gaming and fundraising was developed.
“We’ve chosen to support the Ancient Forest Alliance as beneficiaries, as they are a highly respected and deserving new grassroots organization with a most worthy cause,” stated Adrian Pereira, Co-Founder. “We really enjoyed working with AFA – incorporating their brand, high resolution images and interesting facts into the game allowed us to produce an experience that would better educate the player and increase both awareness and funds!”
According to Ken Wu, Co-Founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance, “Donate2Play’s games for a better world could lead to a mini-revolution of increased support for the environmental movement and progressive causes. The concept is genius and we’re happy to work with the founders of Donate2Play who are cutting edge entrepreneurs with a conscience.”
A big thanks goes out to the Victoria Skafest organizers who made a generous donation to the Ancient Forest Alliance as part of their carbon offset program. The organizers also provided space for the AFA to table at the event which gathered hundreds of petition signatures and many new friends.
As North American’s largest and longest running ska festival with 4 Days of Ska, Reggae, Punk and Dub it’s not an event to miss!
You can visit their website to find out more information here: https://victoriaskafest.ca/
Today the BC government officially proposed to designate the entire Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew as an Old-Growth Management Area (OGMA), pending completion of a 60 day public review period. An Old-Growth Management Area would prohibit logging in the 49 hectare stand of monumental ancient trees. The Avatar Grove’s designation as an OGMA is being welcomed by the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) as an important interim protection for the exceptional grove, which the organization would eventually like to see designated as a provincial conservancy or park.
“The Avatar Grove is an exceptional stand of extremely rare valley-bottom ancient forest that is easy to get to, unlike most other old-growth stands that are on steep slopes, far away on bumpy logging roads. It is fast becoming a pillar of the local economy, not unlike being ‘the Cathedral Grove of Port Renfrew’, and is BC’s most heavily visited unprotected ancient forest. As such we support the Avatar Grove being declared off-limits to logging as an Old-Growth Management Area,” stated Ken Wu, Ancient Forest Alliance co-founder. “Our much larger goal is to end logging of all endangered old-growth forests because there is so little left, and to ensure sustainable logging of second-growth forests. The BC government needs to devise a comprehensive Provincial Old-Growth Strategy towards these ends.”
The Ministry of Forests, Lands, and Natural Resource Operations (MFLNRO) is proposing to designated 49 hectares as an Avatar Grove Old-Growth Management Area, as well as an additional 10 hectares of old-growth forests near Axe Creek., for a total of 59 hectares within OGMA’s. However, 57 hectares of OGMA’s will be removed to compensate the logging licensee, Teal-Jones, in Tree Farm Licence 46 for the protection of the Avatar Grove and Axe Creek areas.
“Our goal is to protect all of our endangered old-growth forests, not just the Avatar Grove. As such we’re against the removal of any existing old-growth protections, because so little old-growth remains,” stated TJ Watt, Ancient Forest Alliance campaigner and photographer. “Our ancient forests are vital for supporting endangered species, the climate, clean water, tourism, and many First Nations cultures.”
The Avatar Grove was located by the Ancient Forest Alliance’s TJ Watt in December of 2009, and shortly thereafter was flagged for logging in February of 2010. The AFA has been working with the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce to see the area protected, and organizes regular public hikes to the grove. The Avatar Grove is filled with monumental stands of giant Douglas firs and redcedars – some 14 feet (4 meters) in trunk diameter, including “Canada’s Gnarliest Tree”, a giant redcedar with an enormous burl. It is home to wolves, cougars, bears, deer, and elk. See photos at: https://16.52.162.165/photos-media/
Already about 75% of Vancouver Island’s original, productive old-growth forests have been logged, including 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow. See ”before” and “after” maps at https://16.52.162.165/ancient-forests/before-after-old-growth-maps/
Ken Wu welcomed the British Columbia government’s plans to protect a forest grove his Ancient Forest Alliance has campaigned to save, but criticized the government’s intention to open another old growth area to logging.
“It’s a mixed bag,” said Wu, after the ministry of forests, lands and natural resource operations announced plans this morning to designate 59.4 hectares of forest that include the Avatar Grove near Port Renfrew as an old growth management area while removing another 57.4 hectares from the same protection.
“It is an awesome thing to have Avatar Grove designated off limits to logging,” Wu said, noting that the grove his group named after a popular movie is exceptional valley bottom old growth.
“At the same time they’ve opened up about 57 hectares of OGMA as a trade off for the licensee,” he said. “It’s a no-go to open up other OGMAs to logging, even if they’re higher altitude old growth . . . There should be no more old growth logging down here period.”
The ministry is accepting comments on the plan until Nov. 9. It’s announcement notes the Renfrew planning area includes 11,624 hectares of OGMAs and another 7,732 hectares of old growth forest are protected in provincial and federal parks.
Link to Tyee article: https://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/BC-Politics/2011/09/07/AvatarGrove/
THANK YOU to Bikram Yoga Saanich and Abbey and David Boon for their generous support from holding Karma classes to benefit the Ancient Forest Alliance. Check out their website if you need yoga classes!
https://www.bikramyogasaanich.com/
