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The Support Bonaire News - 2003-12-22
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Seasons Greetings!

It's almost the end of the year, and the Board of Support Bonaire would like to wish you Happy Holidays! Christmas and Hanukkah are upon us, along with the warm feelings of family and friendship these holidays bring us.

To close out the end of the year, we'd like to give you, the Friends of Support Bonaire, a couple of updates on our doings:

- Donation Made to the Bonaire National Marine Park
- Another Two New Projects for Funding
- Success of our New Project Funding Effort
- Brochure in the Works
- End of Year Reminders

Read on...

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Donation Made to the Bonaire National Marine Park

On December 8th Support Bonaire donated $610 to the Bonaire National Marine Park (BNMP) to assist the Marine Park in purchasing safety equipment for their boats - in particular life vests and first aid kits to use in case of emergency. The BNMP boats play an important role both in patrolling Bonaire's waters, as well as in helping teach local children about Bonaire's marine environment via the Turtuganan di Boneiru and Junior Ranger programs.

The press release about the donation can be found at the following link:
http://www.supportbonaire.org/Support-Bonaire-PressRelease-20031208-BNMPDonation.html

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Another Two New Projects for Funding

We have added two more funding projects to the Support Bonaire Web site:

1) Bonaire Art & Culture Project
Every July, the Stichting voor Kunst en Cultuur van Bonaire (Foundation for Bonaire Art & Culture) organizes the Dia di Arte (Day of Art) event on Bonaire to showcase art in various media as well Bonairean folk music and dance. The organization has very limited resources, and one of its biggest annual expenses is the rental of tents and chairs for the event. Support Bonaire's Bonaire Art & Culture Project supports this event and the organization behind it by using funds donated to the project to purchase portable, folding tents and chair, which will also then be able to be used for smaller "Art Days" on Bonaire as well as the bigger annual event, as a way to promote study and appreciate of the arts on Bonaire - both traditional arts as well as new ones developed and created by those on Bonaire.

2) Klein Bonaire Preservation Project
The island of Klein Bonaire was purchases back from private owners by a combination of the Bonaire government and the non-profit organization, Foundation Preservation Klein Bonaire (FPKB). Now that the island has been saved from possible development, it still needs stewardship, and FPKB is helping provide that. FPKB's goal is to assure that the island of Klein Bonaire is kept in its natural state, and not developed in any way. In order to attain this objective, they are working in collaboration with Sea Turtle Conservation Bonaire (STCB) on a three-year research and management project. Support Bonaire's Klein Bonaire Preservation project provides funds to FPKB to help pay the salary of a marine biologist who is working on Klein Bonaire, both to perform turtle research and to monitor the state of the island. Funding also helps train local residents to be the "caretakers" of the future for Klein Bonaire.

That brings our total number of funding projects to 7, and we have one more planned, namely for a project with Sea Turtle Conservation Bonaire, and expect to be adding that one to our Web site in January once we finalize some additional details.

More details about our current funding projects can be found at:

http://www.supportbonaire.org/Support-Bonaire-Current-Projects.html

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Success of our New Project Funding Effort

Our new project-based funding effort seems to be working well, and we'd like to take those of you who have taken advantage of our new credit card donation pages on the Support Bonaire Web site (see https://www.supportbonaire.org/Make-A-Donation-To-Support-Bonaire.php)

Thanks to your help, in just over one month, we have received over $1800 in donations via our Web site for several of our funding projects, and expect to be distributing the November donations this week, before Christmas.

So, thank you again for helping support Bonaire!

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Brochure in the Works

To make more people aware about Support Bonaire and the various projects we are actively seeking to fund, Board member Ann Dederer has put a lot of work into a brochure describing Support Bonaire, Inc. and our efforts. The brochure includes a tear-off section which potential donors can fill out and drop off at a few key locations on Bonaire, or mail in to make credit card (or check) donations. In speaking with regular Bonaire visitors as well as first-timers, we find that many would like to help Bonaire preserve its natural beauty, as well as help Bonaire's children and culture thrive, but are at a loss of how to do so. The Support Bonaire brochure is intended to offer them some options to fulfull the desire to help.

We should add that Flamingo Communications N.V. here on Bonaire has graciously agreed to donate the cost of printing the brochures, meaning that Support Bonaire only has to pay the cost of the paper for the printing. This is a wonderfully generous offer that we truly appreciate, and it exemplifies how people on Bonaire pitch in to help each other out, and help out those in need.

Once the brochure is printed in early/mid January, we plan on having a Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the brochure available on-line for those of you who would like to share it with friends and family.

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End of Year Reminders

A couple of reminders for you related to year end matters:

1) Please note that in order for us to acknowledge donations as having been received in 2003 so that you can potentially apply them to the 2003 tax year when you file your tax forms with the IRS next year, you need to make your on-line credit card donations on or before next Tuesday, December 30th. If you plan to donate by check, please make sure the check arrives at our Norfolk, Virginia offices by Monday, December 29th.

2) And, if you will be spending New Year's on Bonaire, please come and join myself and Linda at our home at Kaya Rotterdam 2 for our annual potluck BBQ, starting at 3pm on January 1, 2004. You will have an opportunity to enjoy good food and good company, including most of Support Bonaire's Board of Directors and many other people who love and care for Bonaire. Please feel free to contact me if you have questions about this casual, annual event.

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That's all our news for now.

Thank you for your support of Bonaire, and please, feel free to send a copy of this newsletter (preferably with a personal introduction from yourself so that the recipient knows it's not junk mail) to your friends and family who may also find Bonaire holds a special place in their hearts.

(Note: A few of you receiving this newsletter have been added to our mailing list by me personally - let me know if you would rather I removed you from the list.)

Happy Holidays, and have a great New Year!

Jake Richter
President, Support Bonaire, Inc.
jake@supportbonaire.org

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