Sunday morning some friends and I had a beautiful run downtown and around the zoo as participants in the
8th Annual Gorilla Run. It was my second year participating in the Gorilla Run, a unique and enormously fun running race in which all of the proceeds raised go to conservation efforts.
Half of the money raised goes to the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, which sends money to support local efforts in Africa working to protect the gorillas and gorilla habitat. The other half goes to the Calgary Zoo to support their conservation efforts working directly with communities in developing countries.
If you’re interested in protecting great apes and their habitat, you may want to go to Banff this Friday, October 21 to spend an evening with Jane Goodall. Famous for her work studying chimpanzees, Jane Goodall is also namesake of a Canadian organization, the Jane Goodall Institute of Canada, that not only supports efforts to protects chimpanzees and their habitat, but also supports international environmental and humanitarian initiatives. Here is information from the Banff Centre on the Jane’s Journey event:
"Jane Goodall, acclaimed environmentalist, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, and UN Messenger of Peace, will present an exclusive screening of Lorenz Knauer's 2010 documentary film, Jane's Journey, followed by a question and answer session."
For more information or tickets to the Jane's Journey: an evening with Dr. Jane Goodall, visit the Banff Centre's website.
If you're interested in running for gorillas and conservation at next year's Gorilla Run, go to the website and hook up with them through email, Facebook or Twitter. The run is well organized, fun and you'll be surrounded by like-minded people and get a funky running t-shirt~
← (the image on the left is from this year's shirt).