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Success Stories

Wouldn't it be fun to be one of those rare individuals with the means to help all your favourite causes with substantial monetary donations every year? These donors are the wonderful exception but not the rule. At the World Parrot Trust most of our donations come in small increments by many valued supporters. Most people lament that they simply can't give more. Luckily, more and more creative ways of giving seem to arise everyday, often coming from our supporters themselves.

Hosting a Conference
Here's an example of a way to raise funds for the Trust and provide valuable lessons: "Understanding Behaviour: Parrots, People and Other Pets" was the topic for a successful conference held in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada. Forty-five participants from ten US states and 3 Canadian provinces took part in the highly interactive event, which featured operant trainer Bob Bailey, behaviourist Dr. Susan Friedman, PhD, and positive reinforcement trainer Phung Luu. The event, hosted by Pat and Lorne Phillips, also featured a raffle that raised $800.00, which was donated to the Trust.

Biking for the Birds
Bikers, Runners, Movers and Shakers -- take note! If you are up for a challenge consider this; a few years ago, a WPT member and 2 friends embarked on an ambitious biking journey 'for the birds'. They covered 473 miles from San Francisco to Los Angeles, California in 8 days and raised well over $4,000 USD (£2,072) in pledges to benefit the World Parrot Trust.

Another couple of WPT members each entered a sponsored run and collected £120 ($231 USD) and £300 ($579 USD) respectively. Another innovative young lady organized a sponsored skip at her school.

A Trip to the Zoo
Drayton Manor Zoo has been donating and supporting the World Parrot Trust since 2002. They have a donation box dedicated to the Trust in the middle of their Parrot Walk. The Parrot Walk first opened in the year 2000 and since then it has proved very popular with visitors who have shown great generosity in supporting their fund raising efforts.

In the summer holidays of 2005 all of their keepers, head keeper and managers took turns in raising money and awareness of the parrot, their plight, welfare and conservation. They did this by selling badges with pictures of parrots living at their zoo, selling quiz forms to fill in with facts hidden on parrot shaped signs round the zoo, giving children (and many adults) the chance to feed their sea lions some fish by donating to the Trust, conducting a daily "meet the parrots and ask the keeper" question time on the parrot walk and finally displaying their three famous parrot hand puppets for children. They raised a total of £4,758.78. ($9,185 USD).

In 2007 they will once again be raising money for the World Parrot Trust as well as other charities as part of their Out of House Conservation Programme.

And Another Trip to the Zoo
The Palms Tropical Oasis at Stapeley Water Gardens have supported and fundraised for the World Parrot Trust since 1991. The personalities of their macaws, Amazon Parrots and a recently rescued African Grey have captivated visitors' imaginations since the centre opened in 1987, and the introduction of WPT's colourful information boards heralded the start of a long standing relationship.

Curator/Education Officer Valda Fillery and dedicated keepers have worked tirelessly to ensure that the many tropical displays intrigue each and every visitor, with friendly interpretation encouraging them to find out more about tropical habitats. WPT Trustee Andrew Greenwood visited The Palms and accepted a cheque on behalf of WPT for £5,000 ($9,652 USD), but The Palms and their visitors have raised an impressive total of £14,000 ($27,027.03 USD), to help WPT's many projects.

Car Talk and Cameras Too
Two long-time members recently donated their car to the WPT, which we then sold on eBay to benefit the Trust. They are just the most recent visionary supporters to link used cars and parrot conservation. Another supporter wasn't even a Trust member when he contacted us a few years back with a smart little red sports car to donate.

Other quality items can be used or sold as well. You may be familiar with some of the fabulous parrot photos at our site and in our publications. Several photographers, amateurs and professional alike have provided their images to the Trust.

In addition to making their excellent photos readily available for publication, two dedicated Trust members have also donated cameras and accessories to WPT, not once but twice. Some of this high quality equipment went to Brazil to assist our field crew working on Red-browed Amazon and other items were sold online.

It doesn't have to be a hot red sports car or top notch camera gear. If you or a friend has a car, boat, camera, computer, etc. (in good condition please) contact us and we'll happily discuss the possibility of donation and resale. Under certain circumstances these donations work quite well.

Small (quality!) items can be worthwhile donations too. We received boxes of items such as candle holders, vases and notebooks from an antique dealer in London and we hope to hold a raffle at Paradise Park (UK) with these and additional items we have gratefully received over the years.

Jet Setters
With all the airlines going into bankruptcy negotiations aren't you worried your frequent flyer miles will just evaporate some day soon? Poof! Gone! We have the perfect solution -- donate your miles to WPT! Two members from Marietta, Georgia recently donated enough miles for a transatlantic flight. We can save valuable project funds by using your donated miles to get to conferences, field projects and meetings. See our Wish List for more information.

Got Skills?
Do you have skills and interests beyond parrot? Maybe some of your talents or your workplace resources could benefit the Trust. For example, our air miles donor came through for us again when he donated the printing of 1,000 of our popular "No Imports" window stickers.