LightHawk was our Natural World beneficiary for the first quarter of 2013. Director of Giving Laura Armstrong shared this report about how LightHawk will use the grant they received from FBB. FBB members donated $7,760 to LightHawk last quarter.

LightHawk is grateful for Foundation Beyond Belief’s generous support in the first quarter of 2013. Member donations are supporting flights that achieve environmental protection through scientific research, monitoring, aerial photography, and educational tours. The following are a handful of the more than sixty projects that LightHawk’s staff and volunteer pilots are working on this spring to protect land, water, and wildlife across North and Central America:

LightHawk flies with biologists from Panthera to study the jaguar migration corridor that stretches the length of Central America from Guatemala to Panama. As shown in this photograph from Guatemala, the aerial view reveals deforestation that is nearly impossible to discover from the ground. (Image: Roberto Solom/Panthera/LightHawk)
At Wisconsin’s Necedah National Wildlife Refuge, LightHawk’s volunteer pilots are flying with scientists from International Crane Foundation to monitor the whooping crane nesting season. The marshy habitat is unreachable from the ground without disturbing the birds, so flights are the only way to track nesting success. (Image: Eva Szyszkoski/ICF/LightHawk)
In June 2012, lightning ignited a wildfire in the foothills west of Fort Collins, Colorado, that burned 87,000 acres of the Poudre River watershed and threatened Northern Colorado’s water supply. Runoff from the steep hillsides during summer downpours caused the river to run black with char. LightHawk is part of the High Park Fire Coalition, more than a dozen organizations and agencies working to restore the watershed. The aerial view shows the patchiness of the fire and helps identify the damaged areas most likely to impact the river. (Image: Michael Menefee/Colorado Natural Heritage Program/LightHawk)
The Colorado River tops this year’s list of endangered rivers according to American Rivers. LightHawk works with local, regional, and national partner groups to protect the Colorado River, from Wyoming to Mexico. (Image of Colorado River Delta at the Sea of Cortez by Tom McMurray/LightHawk)

Across North and Central America, from Alaska to Panama, LightHawk is flying to make a difference for conservation by providing the incomparable perspective of the aerial view. Thank you for making these flights for conservation possible!

Laura Armstrong
Director of Giving, LightHawk

At 3:01 pm CT on May 20, a massive F-4 tornado decimated the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, OK. Scores of severe injuries and deaths have been reported, and intense work is under way to find and rescue those trapped in the rubble.

The Humanist Crisis Response program of Foundation Beyond Belief has opened a donation drive in response to this disaster. Our staff worked through the night to assess the disaster situation and the relief organizations responding. This morning we have selected Operation USA and the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma to receive our donations. These organizations were chosen for their long records of outstanding work, their high ratings and transparency, and their current direct work in the disaster zone addressing the primary needs of food, shelter, and medical aid.

Donations will be forwarded continuously during the emergency period. FBB retains no portion of donations. All donations to and through Foundation Beyond Belief are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

The staff and board of Foundation Beyond Belief would like to express our deep condolences to the victims of this terrible tragedy and their families and to encourage humanists in this country and around the world to do anything they can to help them put their homes, businesses, and lives back together.

Dale McGowan

Executive Director, Foundation Beyond Belief

Men Can Stop Rape was our Human Rights beneficiary for the first quarter of 2013. Executive Director Neil Irvin shared this report on how MCSR will use the grant they received from FBB. FBB members donated $8,595 to MCSR last quarter.

Men Can Stop Rape is incredibly appreciative of the gifts Foundation Beyond Belief members made to us during Q1 2013. The gift of $8,595 will help us grow our current programming for young men and start an exciting new initiative in the fall. In the short term, Foundation Beyond Belief’s members have helped support our summer programming in the District of Columbia aimed at role modeling healthy, nonviolent masculinity for youth in the elementary to middle school age range. This programming, started two years ago, is very important as we continue our commitment to provide Men of Strength (MOST) Club throughout the calendar year, not just when school is in session. At right is a photo of one of our MOST Club Mentors with some of the youth he worked with in the summer program last year.

Foundation Beyond Belief members’ gifts will also help us pilot our Men of Strength Club programming as a co-curricular (as opposed to extracurricular) part of the school day. Starting this fall, we will be working with a school in DC to provide MOST Club programming during a regular classroom period, rather than during lunch or after school, as with our other MOST Clubs. For the first time in the MOST Club’s history, every male student at the school will be exposed to our MOST Club curriculum emphasizing healthy, nonviolent masculinity, including lessons on healthy relationships and sexuality, nonviolent conflict resolution, and social-emotional learning. Again, we thank you for your generous gifts and all of the other good you are doing in the world, and we hope to keep in partnership with Foundation Beyond Belief and the humanist community.
 
Neil Irvin
Executive Director
Men Can Stop Rape