Action Diary: Great Environmental Charity (BATS!) Needs Your Help

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Monday May 14, 2012 · 11:15 AM PDT

2012/05/14 · 11:15

I've posted several diaries about Bat World Sanctuary. Kossacks were wonderful in helping them get enough money to finish the Bat Castle. It is finished, and we're waiting for the big move-in, at which time I'll do another diary on that.

But now we've got a crucial deadline coming up tomorrow. Bat World Sanctuary is in a wonderful contest: The Groupon Earth Day Green Charity Challenge. We need you to click on that link and send 'em some money!!! The charity that collects the most wins! They were in first place all weekend. As I write this they're only a couple of hundred dollars behind. The contest ends tomorrow on May 15th!

Why this is important:

First place wins $25,000
Second place wins $15,000
This place wins $10,000

That's an extra ten thousand dollars if they win!! Imagine how many little lives they can save with that!

Like Peekaboo (an amazingly friendly bat, hand-raised by Bat World Sanctuary):

The charities in competition with Bat World are all good charities and they're all going to make money off of this contest. I'm pushing Bat World so hard because they're just a little place that does an enormous amount of good, way, way out of proportion to their size.

For example, I will shamelessly re-post the heartwarming videos of how they hand-raised Lil' Drac. These will turn your heart into goo:

And Part II, in which Lil' Drac learns to fly:

Bat World Sanctuary is the only organization in the world that has established and maintained a reproducing colony of insectivorous bats for over 20 years--and that's not supposed to be possible. With the onslaught of White Nose Syndrome, reproducing captive colonies may be the only way to save whole species.

And plus, it's all volunteer. Not one penny of your contribution goes to salaries. Not one penny goes to administration. Every single cent, 100%, goes to the bats.

What they do:

1. Provide permanent sanctuary for non-releasable bats
2. The protection and conservation of bat colonies
3. Promote humane treatment of bats in captivity
4. Educate the public about the importance of bats.

And of course, they also rescue and release around 200 starving baby bats every year, such as Bones:

And here is the video of how the "Little River Eight" came to Bat World (these were rescued from a small roadside zoo that had treated them horribly--the "yellow" color of these bats indicated that they were malnourished):

If you want to adopt a bat through the Groupon Challenge, just say so in your donation. For example, Peekaboo (pictured above, modeling), can be adopted, and you can even get an "autographied photo" of Peekaboo by writing "Peekaboo please" on your donation. Here's how Peekaboo was introduced to Bat World:

It's amazing that this little charity made it to first place over the weekend. Can we put them there again? Will you send even a small donation to help them win?