Dear supporter of the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society,

Would you like to be a patron of our unique educational offerings?

SCVAS has long had a successful education program, largely funded by proceeds raised during our annual Spring Birdathon. For over thirty years, our Wetlands Discovery Program (WDP) has introduced thousands of grade school children to our bayfront habitats, encouraging a love of birds and wildlife as well as conservation of our precious natural ecosystem.

Now we’d like to expand our education offerings to high school students as well as to the wider public. To accomplish this, we are asking you to become an SCVAS Birdathon Benefactor!

Our goal is to increase overall Birdathon contributions by creating a Benefactors’ Grant that matches dollar-for-dollar each individual Birdathon contribution we receive, up to $10,000 or more. By doing so, we hope to increase total donations by at least 25%. In the past several years, the Birdathon has brought in around $40,000 each year, so with your help we think we can surpass $50,000 this year.

Part of our education expansion plans are made possible by a new grant from the
Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority. This grant plus what we raise during the Birdathon will go toward the creation of the Oak Savanna Community Science Project which will include a new high school curriculum to reach underserved urban students (with an emphasis on Title 1 schools) and help fund classroom activities and field trips around the Laguna Seca in the North Coyote Valley Conservation Area. These funds also support bioblitzes and other public community science projects at Laguna Seca.

How can you help? If you’d like to become a Birdathon Benefactor, please contact John Richardson, the chair of our Development Committee, by clicking the button below. John will be delighted to answer any questions you have about the program and help you become part of this new effort.

If you already know you’d like to contribute, click the “Donate” button at the top of this page to send us your pledge! We appreciate your support of SCVAS’ education offerings.

• For more details about the Oak Savanna Community Science Project, visit: https://scvas.org/oscsp

• For general information on this year’s Spring Birdathon, to go https://scvas.org/birdathon

• To learn about our education program from the OSA’s point of view, read their profile of SCVAS Executive Director Matthew Dodder at https://news.openspaceauthority.org/blog/matthew-dodder

• For a history of SCVAS’s efforts to help preserve the 937 acres of Coyote Valley that include Laguna Seca, see “A Big Win in Coyote Valley” by our Environmental Advocate, Shani Kleinhaus