05 december 2015

Nieuwtje!
Net na mijn bezoek in Bonaire werd de papegaai op de rechter foto binnengebracht.
Hij was er erg slecht aan toe.
Jullie raden het misschien al: de medewerkers van Echo hebben hem de naam Félipe gegeven. Cool!

09 december 2015

Twelve year old Félipe, from the Netherlands, was last year's top fundraiser of a World Wildlife Fund fundraising campaign. He has started his own foundation called Sea & Land Wonders and has raised an impressive amount of money. He came to Bonaire on vacation with his family and presented Echo with a 4,000 Euro donation! Thank you Félipe, you are an amazing young man. Echo and and the parrots of Bonaire are tremendously grateful for your committment and efforts!

21 november 2015

De Kerstfair bij de Hanos is jaarlijks een zeer druk bezocht evenement. Overal in de vestigingen is een inspirerende kerstsfeer met veel glitters en het is er bovenal erg gezellig. Van de directeuren van de vestigingen Venlo en Eindhoven heb ik een super mooi plekje ter beschikking gesteld gekregen om zoveel mogelijk bosjes rozen te verkopen. Dat is zeker gelukt: er zijn in totaal 400 bosjes rozen verkocht! Ook dit was weer een unieke kans om Sea & Land Wonders onder de aandacht van veel mensen te brengen. De heer Coumans en de heer Nix, hartelijk bedankt voor het vertrouwen en de geboden unieke kans!

   

"I love animals. They are fascinating organisms. There is something inside of me that just resonates with them,” says a radiant Félipe Saelmans on the last afternoon on his favorite island, Bonaire. Félipe Saelmans is 12 years old and has lost his heart to Bonaire’s natural world. He is a youngster on a mission. His goal is to raise as much money as possible for the nature and wildlife of the Dutch Caribbean Islands.
Félipe started his own foundation called Sea and Land Wonders Dutch Caribbean after a visit to the island last year. The motivated minor had been awarded with the title ‘Best Junior Ranger of the Year 2014’ by the Dutch World Wide Fund for Nature (Wereld Natuur Fonds WNF) for raising the most funds for the nonprofit organization. The coveted award included a trip to Bonaire for Félipe and his father Léon Saelmans.
Félipe explains: “It was a wonderful trip. We saw so much of Bonaire’s beautiful nature and underwater world. Part of the funds I raised last year were used to buy Sea Turtle Conservation Bonaire (STCB) a much-needed boat and they took me along to see the turtle nests and the eggs hatch at Klein Bonaire. I cleaned the beach and looked for bats at night with the STINAPA junior rangers, I visited the ECHO parrot conservatory by Dos Pos. I was also invited by the Coral Restoration Foundation to dive down and see their coral restoration project. I learned to dive before I came to Bonaire (smiles.) A diving club in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, was kind enough to prepare me for a guided dive down to 11 meters to see the coral project with my own eyes.”

Félipe Saelmans is 12 years old and last year he was the top fundraiser in the WWF-NL junior rangers, greatly contributing towards the purchase of the new STCB boat. His reward last year was a trip to Bonaire with his family and he got to see a number of conservation activities while he was here. Since then Félipe has decided to raise money on his own and for that purpose he founded a non-profit foundation called Sea & Land Wonders Dutch Caribbean www.sea-land- wonders.nl to support conservation work in the Dutch Caribbean (mainly on Bonaire).
Already he has raised 6,500 Euros for STCB, primarily by selling roses at school! What an incredible young man!

Thank you Félipe!