Child Care Centre goes APE !

Narrabeen Children’s Centre received a pleasant surprise when the authors of the book they were reading to the children surprised them with a visit.

28 kindergarten students were pleasantly surprised when, after reading a book about the critically endangered orangutan (“Tears In The Jungle”), the books authors, Daniel and William Clarke surprised them with a visit.  One child was so amazed to see them they said, “I didn’t think you were real!”.

The boys also brought along a lifesize orangutan with an armspan of 3 metres to demonstrate how big they grow in the wild.  The children were quite taken by the size of this big toy !

Although Daniel and William talked with the kids for 90 minutes about the orangutan and the destruction of its habitat, the focus of their visit was to demonstrate how anyone can make a difference if they put their mind to it using their quest as an example.

Motivation

The boys visit was motivated by an email from the mother of five year old Arno who had taken it upon himself to help raise money to save the critically endangered orangutan.  In a short time, Arno had made himself a small collection tin, raised money by visiting family, friends and neighbours and then inspiring his kindergarten to follow suit.

Fund Raising

At the end of today’s visit Arno and the Narrabeen Children’s Centre had raised $206 for The Orangutan Project’s Safeguard Program (protecting the orangutan habitat).  Daniel and William were amazed at such an incredible effort from a small determined group of kids at this wonderful child care centre – CONGRATULATIONS !!

The boys finished off the day by presenting the Centre with their very own ‘Buddy’ the Orangutan toy for the kids to continue to learn from.