In addition to starting a garden/science lab environment for Castlemont Elementary School, Michael Lee Environmental Foundation is following its charter by investing in other environmental endeavors throughout the Bay Area and beyond.
Some of our most recent partners include:
Bay Area Wilderness Training provides wilderness adventures for urban youth and leadership training for educators. Some of their trips include climbing up Mt. Shasta, backpacking in the Sierra-Nevada, and camping in some of the more remote areas of California. BAWT approached our foundation in 2006 to ask for funding assistance with an extention of their San Francisco based office to Milpitas. We found a good fit with their mission and the extention to serving the South Bay Area through Milpitas. We consider BAWT a good partner and love the work they do with helping introduce nature and the challenge of the outdoors to their clients.
Website: www.bawt.org
A major amount of our 2006 funding actually went to an international endeavor that provides training for stewards in land that is purchased or acquired to create preserves in Mexico through fund raising.
The area known as Calakmul is a very important ecosystem that supports flyways for migratory birds and is highly biodiverse and rich in culture. Half of the remaining Jaguars on the Planet reside in this area of Mexico. Through our donation, Friends of Calakmul has been able to conduct a video of the area for funding and educational purposes. With our donation they are able to bring the story of Calakmul to the Bay Area to help in their funding efforts. Check out their website for more information on this incredible bioregion.
Keep posted as photos of their recent trip will be available here on our website soon.
Website: www.calakmul.org
In the last quarter of 2006 Michael Lee Environmental Foundation granted $10,000 to Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation to print 10,000 copies of their Junior Ranger Guide. This guide is printed on 100% recycled paper with soy-based inks. It facilitates lessons for children in environmental science and education. Santa Clara County Parks & Recreation was waiting to produce more copies of the guide for future programs and asked our foundation for funding assistance. Click here to view and download the Junior Ranger Guide.
Website: www.parkhere.org
Early last year our foundation had a request for $2,500 to help support the creation of a redwood interpretive guide that will serve educators, students, and interns for California State Parks. This guide is in the final process and will be available on our website in the very near future. It concentrates on the biodiverse coast redwood forests of Sonoma County. Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods is a volunteer non-profit organization that supports environmental education in the California State Parks of the Sonoma County coast and redwoods area.
Website: www.stewardsofthecoastandredwoods.org
New Gardens Growing.... Allen at Steinbeck, Almaden Elementary – stay posted
New funding partners: Youth in Science, Environment California, Santa Clara Audubon Society and Coyote Valley EIR research support.
Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods received an additional grant in early 2007 for further development of the Redwood Guide.