Fundraising

Dear Furless Friends,

Since most people can't make it to the jungles of Africa, we are pretending the jungles are in Colorado. Keep your eyes open because on October 21, 2017, there will be hundreds of people dressed as mountain gorillas running through Westminster. The Mountain Gorilla Conservation Fund is hosting the 14th Annual Gorilla Run and all of us are helping to keep Dian Fossey's dream alive. Remember the movie "Gorillas in the Mist"?

This is where we need your help.....So what's our story?

In 1985, Dian Fossey was murdered. The Mountain Gorilla Conservation Fund (MGCF) took the initiative to keep her dream alive. When MGCF took over the project there were only 248 mountain gorillas left in the WORLD. Because of the projects that MGCF oversees there are now 880 in the countries of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A mountain gorilla can only be seen in Africa, these animals do not survive in captivity therefore they'll never been seen in a zoo.

Mountain Gorillas are one of our closest relatives, sharing 98.6% of our DNA. This makes them the closest link to mankind and we are trying to keep these animals from extinction. MGCF introduced veterinary medicine back in 1986 with a project called Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project. The local governments are convinced that this project saved the gorillas from extinction during th war in the mid 90's.

MGCF developed a veterinary education department in central Africa's largest University, Makerere University. This program is educating local Ugandans and Rwandans to become veterinarians. The current facility at the University has outgrown itself and we need to raise the funds to create more room for education. After graduation, they first protect the mountain gorilla, then expand to other wildlife in Uganda and Rwanda. MGCF needs support in raising funds to continue building an expansion that will provide new lecture halls, postgraduate and grant research offices, and a wildlife disease surveillance biohazard level 1 bank. MGCF was the first in the world to ever build an "on location" veterinary center in 1986 for the protection of endangered animals. Since then, we have graduated 36 wildlife veterinarians through our programs and this has proven successful as the Mountain Gorilla is the only great ape primate in the world posting positive numbers in its population. This is a great thing for central Africa!

How are we doing this.....
We are asking each of our gorillas to fundraise and help us acheive this goal. This is where we need the donors help! Visit https://www.crowdrise.com/GorillaRunDenver press the "donate to a fundraiser" button and select the fundraiser you'd like to support. During these difficult economical times, your help is very important to the gorillas. Please help in any way you can.

Thanks so much from all the gorillas.