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Hi Green Kids!
Welcome to the Green Kids Club Newsletter where you can keep up with the Green Kids Club happenings each month, learn some new things, and challenge yourself as a true Green Kid ambassador for the planet (adult or child)!
Photo Courtesy of Naturally Wild Photography
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| We are releasing our newest book, a recreation of our Jade Elephant book, with new illustrations by former Disney Artist, Andreas Wessel-Therhorn. This book has been revised to teach children the importance of treating elephants with respect, such as to stopping elephant riding and situations where animals must perform and/or be in celebrations. This story is dedicated to all groups and people trying to help elephants during these difficult times, especially Save Elephant Foundation. 50% of our proceeds from sales of this book go to help Asian Elephants in need – especially during this tough time with COVID and a lack of resources for many elephants. Shop here! |
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| For parents with children that have Dyslexia, you can pre-order, Elee and the Shining Star with NoahText. We are excited to have a book that helps children that are struggling readers and ESL read with more ease and learn about the environment! Click here to purchase! Noah Text - Elee and the Shining Star - Purchase here! |
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| We hope you have looked into purchasing our latest book, Kabelo, A Silly Little Rhino. It has beautiful illustrations by Morgan Spicer and a wonderful story that commemorates a little rhino named Kabelo. Our proceeds go to benefit Saving the Survivors and The Rhino Orphanage. These organizations work hard to make a difference protecting and caring for rhinos that have been injured due to poaching incidents. |
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What book or story is next in our Environmental Heroes Series of books?
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| We’re excited to announce that we are working with Project Chimp. This group provides a sanctuary for chimpanzees that have undergone testing through medical programs that recently stopped in 2015. Chimps housed at this facility have undergone years of testing and have come out as survivors! Project Chimp currently houses over 200 chimpanzees on a 236-acre property located in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Our story will center around a chimp named Kareem, a very strong and brave chimp who survived this ordeal of medical testing and is now helping other chimps with the trauma they underwent. This story will be out late Fall – Early Winter timeframe. |
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Green Kids Club is sponsoring a virtual fundraiser for Elephants Without Borders (EWB). When you donate to Elephants Without Borders, you are helping animals in need. As a thank you for a donation of $50 or more to EWB (via Green Kids Club), we will send you an EWB 100% cotton tote bag with a “Molelo the Fire Elephant” paperback book inside. The tote has been silk screened on two sides with images of adorable baby elephants from the EWB sanctuary using eco-friendly inks, and the bag has a zipper pouch inside! |
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Green Kids is proud to announce our newest Environmental Hero, Thomas D. Mangelsen. Tom is one of the most awarded and influential nature photographers in the world. He has traveled throughout the natural world for over 45 years, observing and photographing some of Earth's last great wild places. One particular project focused on a mountain lion family and inspired Tom to co-found The Cougar Fund for the conservation of this species and other carnivores through education and advocacy. We are proud to be collaborating on our Children's Book, Grizzly 399, and Grizzly 399 Hibernation Pandemonium. Thank you Tom for making a difference!
See this inspirational TED talk by Thomas D. Mangelsen - Tom Mangelsen and Grizzly 399
Other News
Green Kids and Love the Wild Foundation donated Grizzly 399 books to the Teton Regional Land Trust, a group that helps to preserve important land locations rich with fish and wildlife. We hope our books will make a difference in educating children about the importance of preserving our lands! |
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| How is Felicia the bear doing? As you may recall the Wyoming Fish & Game department was hazing Felicia and her two cubs to try and move them away from a highway location. This was done because they felt that her presence was creating a safety issues for drivers stopping on the side of the road to look at her. Our understanding is that she is staying farther away from the road. At this time she is not in danger of being removed from the area or euthanized. So keep your fingers crossed and prayers said! |
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August Animal & Environment Observances
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Mark your calendars with these fun, environmentally focused holidays to celebrate Earth and all its amazing animals! Photo Courtesy of Yesacorsa.com - also click the photo to learn about Whale Sharks!
2021 Weeks:
- International Bat Night(s) - August 27-29, 2021 (Last Full Weekend in August)
2021 Days: (Date Order)
- August 1st — Universal Birthdays for Shelter Dogs
- August 2nd — Dinosaurs Day
- August 7th — National Sea Serpent Day
August 8th — International Cat Day
- August 10th — World Lion Day
- August 12th — World Elephant Day
- August 14th — World Lizard Day
- August 17th — National Black Cat Appreciation Day
- August 19th — World Orangutan Day
- August 21st — International Homeless Animals Day
- August 21st — World Honey Bee Day
- August 26th — National Dog Day
- August 28th — Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day
- August 30th — International Whale Shark Day
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This month we will be highlighting International Homeless Animals Day. There are so many domesticated animals in this world and many of them need homes and or are not cared for properly. Support your local animal shelter and/or Humane Society and see what you can do to make a difference. How did we at Green Kids grow to love animals as much as we have? Well our founder, Sylvia Medina, is the Founder of the Snake River Animal Shelter in Idaho Falls, Idaho. This came about because of the large number of animals being euthanized per year in this part of our country (approximately 10,000 per year). When this was realized, huge efforts were made to build the shelter. Lots of hard work and many donation asks, many amazing volunteers and donors made the difference. The shelter dream became a reality! Now we have an amazing shelter taking in homeless animals and finding them forever homes!
You can also make a difference by helping an animal in need! Click the photo of the dog to learn about how to help animals in need. |
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So don't you love elephants? I know I do. Here are some facts to learn about these amazing iconic animals! There are two main species of elephants: African and Asian. Unfortunately, we've lost nearly 50% of the world's Asian elephants over the last three generations. Today, there are less than 50,000 individual Asian elephants left in the wild.
Elephants help sustain the world they live in. They dig water holes other animals can use. When they poop, they spread seeds and fertilizer so more plants and trees can grow. When they walk through the forest or grass on their big feet, they stir up insects and mice for birds to eat. Elephants are threatened by hunters seeking their ivory tusks by the loss of their habitat. As humans move into elephant habitat to live and farm, the elephant herds are left with fewer places for the food and water they need.
Want to learn more? Click the button below to visit our Animal Highlights Elephant page for more information! Or buy our book - Learning About Elephants - a minimum of 50% of our proceeds goes to Elephants Without Borders! |
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With summer coming to an end and tons of fruits and vegetables coming back into season and being harvested, stores and markets will be piling their shelves high with beautiful, ripe, and delicious food. But what happens to that food after it's not so beautiful and/or ripe anymore?
An estimate shows about 40% of food in the US alone ends up in landfills. That is absolutely insane considering that only a little less than half of Americans live in food insecure households and can't always afford to put food on the table.
And all that food that gets put in a landfill doesn't just decompose and disappear. Because there isn't enough oxygen the food starts to release Methane which has more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide.
Many people aren't aware of how much food they waste. But as Green Kids, it's our job to help educate them and make positive changes in our world. So this month we challenge you to reduce wasted food in your home! Whether that means making a compost bin, keeping a diary of how much food you throw out, or even just buying less in the first place. |
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This month we will be highlighting a group that we feel has made a tremendous difference teaching children the importance of caring for animals in need – both domestic and wild (www.liberiaananimalwelfaresociety.org). See this amazing video to see what this organization does – one day I hope to visit them and see their work directly.
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| This month we will be giving away a copies of our books, A Tail of Three Lions, Molelo the Fire Elephant, and also Princess – look out for these during our Facebook and Instagram announcements! |
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Our Livestream Interview with Ian Michler of Blood Lions
Book Excellence Award winners
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| We had a story telling zoom call about our book Princess with Dr. Gary Shapiro (President of Orang Utan Republik Foundation). Please take a few minutes to bring this story to your children. This story is about a young orphaned orangutan displaced from her home in Borneo before being rescued, rehabilitated, and released safely back to her natural home! Click here to listen to this amazing story. After our reading, you will get to hear a few questions between Gary and Sylvia regarding orangutans and hear an orangutan call! |
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| In May, we had opportunities to do book readings with several classes including Caldwell, Idaho. We had several classes hear us read Grizzly 399 and also A Tail of Three Lions. If you would like to hear us read these books feel free to find us on YouTube! |
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Calling all Educators – Including Home Schooled Children!
The last several months Green Kids Club in conjunction with Love the Wild Foundation, presented an on-line class through Inspired Classroom about Grizzly 399. We plan to continue with this for School Year 2021-2022. Our Inspired Classroom may include a Bee Story and/or a Lion story. We have yet to decide which on-line classroom challenge we plan to offer. Although we will maintain Grizzly 399 and include the Hibernation story as well. If anyone is interested in participating in this challenge go to Inspired Classroom to learn more about this. Feel free to email us questions as well if you would like to get involved in our challenge! |
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About the author
Sylvia Medina