In March of 1994, we received the first donation to our "Own a Piece of the Rex" campaign. Now ten months later we have received more than 640 donations from 41 states and five countries. The contributions total more than $30,000. Obviously this has been a successful campaign, but perhaps the most gratifying part has been the accompanying letters of dedication, notes from children, etc.
The best surprise of all was received December 14th from the 7th& 8th grade Science Club from Lake Michigan Catholic Junior High School ... a brief note, a brochure, and a check for $3,700.
The story is a terrific one that demonstrates both student initiative and dedication. For several years the students at Lake Michigan Catholic have raised funds to help protect endangered animal species and the rain forests of Central America. This year they took on an additional project. Two of the students saw an article in Family Circle Magazine about our T. rex campaign. Though it did not exactly involve an endangered species, our project caught the imagination of these students and they shared their idea with their teacher, Ginny Hevel. Unbeknownst to us, they began their own fund-raising campaign -- a Rocking Chair Rock-a-Thon. They developed a motto, designed a T-shirt, collected aluminum cans (see the beautiful poster above), and collected sponsors for the rock-a-thon. After all of these efforts and ten hours of rocking, the students raised sufficient funds to support their usual environmental organizations, plus an additional $3,700 that they kindly donated to us. Thanks Lake Michigan!!!!!
We have had a wonderful exchange of letters, phone calls, and souvenir gifts since. Though they will be unable to attend our T. rex Expo in May, we will send pictures of the event and the names "The Class of 1999" and "The Classof 2000" of Lake Michigan Catholic Junior High School will be engraved on a special plaque as part of our permanent exhibit.
