In July 2009 Maya made a donation to the World Wildlife Fund's adopt an endangered species program and in so doing learned that orangutans, the animal she chose to adopt, are endangered because their rainforest habitat is being destroyed and replaced with palm oil plantations. Palm oil is an ingredient used as a preservative in many types of food including crackers, cereals, pastries, spreads, microwave popcorn, candy, chips, cookies etc. When palm oil is harvested in a non-sustainable manner (which unfortunately is currently how most palm oil is produced) millions and millions of hectares of rain forest is clear cut which means that species such as the orangutan are now fighting for their survival.
Maya asked that we no longer purchase products containing this harmful ingredient and we also began sending letters of concern to companies that use palm oil.
Last Fall, Maya joined Girl Guides of Canada and was upset to learn that the girl guide cookies made by Dare Canada contain palm oil. As you likely are aware, every girl guide is asked to sell a certain number of cookies as part of the organization's fundraising campaign. Maya chose not to sell the cookies and instead chose to raise money in a way that remained true to her beliefs. She decided that she would recruit sponsors and that for every $10.00 pledged she would donate 1 hour of her time volunteering at a local animal shelter.
Maya easily raised the $60.00 she needed for the girl guides but decided that she would try to get sponsored for an additional 200 hours so she could raise $2000 some of which she will donate to local rescues and some which she will donate to orangutan conservation which includes habitat restoration.
Initially Maya kept a personal journal of her volunteering but we thought a blog would be a good way to keep her sponsors up to date on her volunteering. Maya also hopes that it will raise awareness and that more people will come to understand how many animals are waiting at pounds and rescues to be adopted. Every day hundreds of homeless dogs and cats are put down. That is the reality. Adopting saves a life. Buying puts money into the pockets of people who have turned animal breeding into a business.
Maya and I work on her blog together. It is mostly her words with some editing by me (mostly to keep the entries from getting too long). The feelings and sentiments are hers alone. I write the information included in the "notes" section available on some of the entries. Generally these are to provide some background information or context to Maya's entry.
Maya volunteers most of her time at the SPCA Emergency Shelter but also helps with Montreal based rescues including Paws for Life, Eleven Eleven and the Underdog Club. To date she has donated money to Paws for Life for a surgery and to help with the release fees for three dogs pulled from a high kill pound and to Eleven Eleven Rescue to help with two surgeries one for a dog named Speedy and one for a puppy named Dewey both of whom required surgery due to owner abuse. Nice!
