Believe in us...

Nature Conservancy doesn't believe in us.

As soon as Al and I decided to dedicate our ride to land conservation we contacted the Nature Conservancy.

They politely explained that our project probably wouldn't bring in enough money to warrant their effort.

That was disappointing.

The Nature Conservancy does wonderful work.
But they are focused on large tracts of land all connected together into functioning ecosystems.

They are too big.

And we are too small.

We are just two people who want to do whatever we can as individuals to protect more of the beauty of America for future generations.

We can't afford to buy huge swatches of land.
And we don't have what you call a large marketing budget
(we have Kyle).

But Barry believes in us.
Barry is the director of the Red-tail Conservancy, our local land trust that protects 1600 acres of woods, fields and wetlands in east central Indiana.

Barry said Red-tail would be our sponsor and give us help with a website, blog site, brochures, etc...

But, I told Barry, we should have a national connection since we are travelling across 9 states - not even touching our home Hoosier state.

So Barry intruduced us to the Land Trust Alliance.
The LTA is the parent organization that gives support to small land trusts all over our country.

The LTA believes in us.

They immediately sent us a list of the 34 land trusts whose borders we will cross on our grand adventure.
We have contacted all 34 of those land trusts and gotten a warm reception from many of them - offering us food, shelter and support while we are in their territory.

Sheryl believes in us.

Sheryl is a high school science teacher, She is thrilled to be following our preparation and our plans to see so much of this wide country.

At our first meeting she spoke up and said, "Let me be your first donor! I will give $1 for very day of your ride!"

Anonymous even believes in us.

Anonymous has pledged to match every donation in March dollar for dollar.

So if you donate to flight in March - click the hawk to get to the Red-tail donation page - this benefactor will double your donation.

It is nice to have someone believe in us.