As many of you know, I come from Bakersfield, CA. It's a great town though rather conservative. I'm always interested in bringing the town into the national spotlight and focusing progressive energy there when I can.
Most of the opportunities that present themselves are negative though, which makes it a tough call since moving a town towards progressivism is best done by getting progressives to do something good rather than attacking the bad.
As I was looking around today, an opportunity to do a lot of good, help a great cause and have some fun at the same time presented itself in the form of a black bear.
In Bakersfield, there is an organization called CALM, The California Living Museum. It is an organization dedicated to preserving and nurturing native California flora and fauna. In their own words: http://www.calmzoo.org/
California's Premier Native Zoo and Garden
Founded in 1980 and opened to the public in 1983, CALM displays and interprets native California animals, plants, fossils, and artifacts to teach a respect for all living things through education, recreation, conservation, and research.
Sounds like an oasis and it is. The place is really fantastic.
So what's the hook to get y'all involved?
Name our New Bear!
Enter now to name our bear! Grand prize winner will receive a custom bear from Build-A-Bear Workshop, as well as CALM Family Membership! Entry deadline is September 21, 2007; the winner will be announced September 28, 2007. All proceeds benefit the construction of CALM’s state-of-the-art Mountain Lion/Bobcat Exhibit.
When I read that I thought "What would be a fun name for a bear?" The hope is that by attaching this name, it may be picked up by the national media and bring attention to this great place. If we do our part in this (see below) the people in Bakersfield will become more aware of the power and kindness of Democrats, liberals and the left-wing blogosphere.
There are a few catches to this, of course. First, they are requesting donations to enter the contest and that it doesn't appear to be a popular vote thing. Second, they don't have an online donation center, though if we get some attention on this, I can probably change that. Last, from the entry form, it looks like they are expecting the contest to be entered by children. I called them to get some idea of how this worked, and didn't get very far. If we get some interest, I can try to work something out with them.
It's a small change and little effort in a very conservative area where any positive action makes a huge difference.
Update: Hat tip to TokenLiberal in the comments who points out you can see some pictures and video of the fuzzy little killing machine at http://www.kget.com/...