GivingTuesday
Help the Kids who Need it most!
At Safari West few things are as near and dear to our hearts as providing up close and personal experiences to children, introducing them to the wonders of the natural world and inspiring future generations to embrace the role of wildlife stewards for life.
Leading the Safari West Wildlife Foundation efforts is Safari West LIVE, a fully interactive, live-streamed experience that brings the wild creatures and educational programming of the Safari West Preserve to children’s hospitals and young people in underserved schools across the country.
To date, we have reached and live-streamed to more than 64 hospitals, making our content available to approximately 116,000 pediatric hospital beds across 34 states.
Safari West LIVE in the Hospital
Safari West LIVE delivers a play-based, therapeutic solution that directly addresses the mental health challenges hospitalized children face.
Hospitalized children are particularly susceptible to stress, distress, anxiety and depression as well as to post-op ongoing MH issues. Hospital Child Life Service (CLS) professionals acutely understand the impact of hospitalization and disease on children. According to the Association of Child Life Professionals, play is among the most effective tools to help children cope with stress from hospital encounters, and play contributes to minimizing associated negative MH outcomes. Further, play provides normalization and empowers children (and families) coping with hospitalization. Clinical research and practice have demonstrated that CLS professionals using play.
Your gift to the Foundation is needed to expand this program to hospitals across the United States. This programming is free to hospitals and is funded entirely by our donor’s generous gifts. Some of these children cannot see their families, and interactive programming and education offer children hope, and a way to disconnect from their hospital beds to enjoy the beauty of the Sonoma Serengeti and all it’s wild creatures. Each program’s budget is $850 – $1,100 running two times a day, two days a week. Our goal is to expand this program into additional hospitals, shelters, and schools. We can work towards that goal with your gift.
Discover Africa, we believe that school budgetary concerns shouldn't limit a student's opportunity to learn. That's why we're proud to provide the Discover Africa Scholarship Program, assisting Sonoma County and Greater Bay Area school grades 3-12 with science and wildlife conservation educational opportunities.
In 2023, the Foundation funded field trips for seventeen Title 1 schools and 880 students engaged in learning about the wild creatures at Safari West. Students from Santa Rosa, American Canyon, Ukiah, Calistoga, Kelseyville and Woodland, California received scholarships. Unfortunately, there were many that were turned away due to funding. Many of these children have not ventured out of their city. Your generous gift will fund future education and provide hope with impacts lasting a lifetime. We are out of funds for this year, and with your generous gift will be able to continue into 2024.
Junior Keepers, is open to qualified young people between the ages of 12 and 16 years old. It’s a chance for young people to learn about the opportunities available in other animal/conservation/science fields. Junior Keepers are involved with keeper duties, presenting information to the public, gaining knowledge about the exotic animals in the Safari West collection, and learning about the importance of caring for our native species. They develop public speaking, organizational and team-building skills, just to name a few. Your gift will help provide a mentorship program to a young person that is long-lasting with the intention of developing into a related professional field. This program is restricted by funding, and our goal with your generous gift is to expand into schools with science and wildlife conservation programs.