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FAMILY:Update on John Denver Memorial Scholarship and a big thank you to all
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Bette Loiselle, Patrick Osborne, and Bernadette Dalton
Dec 7, 1999, 3:00:00 AM12/7/99
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From: Bette Loiselle, Patrick Osborne, and Bernadette Dalton
Subject: Update on John Denver Memorial Scholarship and a big thank you to all
A few weeks ago we sent letters regarding the status of the John Denver Memorial Scholarship in Tropical Ecology to a few dear friends we have met since that tragic day John Denver was lost to us all. We want to take the opportunity to tell you that we have met the initial goals set by the Kroeger Family's challenge grant and to thank all of you. We also want to especially acknowledge and thank our many new friends who have worked so hard and have given so much of their time and energy to help us create a living legacy to the environmental causes that John Denver believed so fervently.
As you know, following the unexpected and tragic death of John Denver in October 1997, we, like so many others, wanted to do something that would be a constant reminder to us and others of his love and sense of responsibility for the environment. Our idea was to establish a named research scholarship that would be competitively awarded to a graduate student pursuing research on the ecology and conservation of tropical ecosystems. John Denver was the first recipient of the World Ecology Award given by the International Center for Tropical Ecology, and he kindly agreed to serve on our Advisory Board. As a member of this Board, his advice was sought on nominations and future recipients of this award, and he was key in getting Jacques Cousteau to accept the award just a few years later. Once we announced our intention to establish this scholarship, we received a phone call from Hal Kroeger. Hal and Carole Kroeger were long-time friends of John Denver, and wanted to contribute to making the scholarship a living legacy of John's environmental work. After talking with John's family, the Kroeger's contributed one-half of a $50,000 challenge grant and proceeded to help us raise the BALANCE [second half]. We have now met the challenge and have awarded this prestigious scholarship ($2500) in spring 1998 and 1999 (see below). We will shortly open competition for the John Denver Memorial scholarship in the year 2000. However, we have met this goal because of so many people, people that in their own way have been moved by John Denver's passion for the environment and human welfare as so clearly depicted in his songs and his actions.
We would like to recognize these very special people here and publicly thank them.
Hal & Carole Kroeger: truly wonderful people - it's no surprise they were such good friends of John Denver
Ron Bonine: Ron has been instrumental in helping us reach so many of John Denver's friends and fans around the globe. Ron and his wife Kim have kept in close contact with us and with Denver fans and friends, and we look forward to staying close to our new friends.
Mumze.com: Pamela "Mumze" Keil created a special web-page http://www.johndenver.net/ that provided so many of you with the information about the scholarship and with a link to the ICTE. Moreover, she provided an avenue for many of you to get one of Rosemary Good's sweatshirts which benefitted the scholarship. Not done yet, Mumze created an auction page in 1999 especially for items benefitting the scholarship!
Conny Staedtler: Conny from Herne, Germany wrote an entire web site page about the scholarship called "Voice of America" http://home.t-online.de/home/rainbow13/scholar.htm, also linking the ICTE website to her home page. Moreover, Conny wrote innumerable letters to German organizations, companies, and others on behalf of the scholarship and obtained many donations for us, including one from Porsche! She and her kids at the Comprehensive School Herne have been wonderful and we have greatly appreciated all the photos, drawings, cards, letters they have sent!
Rosemary Good: Rosemary labored long and hard for the scholarship donating 100% of the proceeds of every John Denver sweatshirt and cap she embroidered. The shirts and caps are lovely, and we are sure reflect on both the wonderful spirit of John Denver AND Rosemary Good!
Mary Ledford: Mary published an article on the scholarship and photo in her newsletter, and organized the Let this be a Voice symposium, with Pamela Beasley and Rory Young, at which the ICTE was represented. Proceeds from the John Denver charity auction at the symposium were used partially to support the scholarship and other causes John believed in. This was also a great opportunity for Bette to meet many friends and supporters of John Denver and the scholarship.
Christine Moon: Our UK connection, Christine placed an article in her newsletter, and held an auction of the video featuring John acccepting the World Ecology Award at the ICTE in fall 1990.
Christine Smith: Christine wrote several articles about the scholarship and the ICTE during her wonderful tributes to John Denver, and inspired us with her own words and passion for people and the environment (if you have not already seen Christine's tribute to John visit http://www.vtinet.com/johndenver/.
Hal Bidlack: Hal as Windstar Communications Director linked the Windstar website to the ICTE shortly after the challenge grant and memorial scholarship were established.
Emily Parris: Emily as editor of Rocky Mountain High email newsletter included several articles regarding the scholarship helping us to get the word out!
Dottie Honer and Carol Blevins: Dottie and Carol included a very nice article regarding the scholarship in Hearts in Harmony magazine.
David Gorell: Our Australian connection, David linked Australia to the ICTE and scholarship through his Sing Australia fan club website.
Grace Sylvan: Grace, creator of "KidsDomain.com" website, also helped to reach many of you by placing information about the scholarship on her page.
Pat Cavanaugh: Pat helped us out in her home state of Pennslyvania and beyond by writing an article promoting the scholarship in the newsletter to the friends of Pennyslvania and also reprinting this article in the magazine Hearts in Harmony.
Deb Perry: Deb linked our website on the scholarship to Rory's "World family gathering page", and later helped advertise Rosemary's shirts for the scholarship.
Jim Horn: A member of John's band, Jim donated a CD and an autograghed photo for auction to benefit the scholarship.
Steve Rafferty: Steve from the UK donated a Yellowstone print for auction.
Windstar Kids: These remarkable kids decided that wanted to donate all proceeds from the contest they won for a roadside cleanup to the scholarship. We are sure John would have loved these kids!
Jeanne Fair: Jeanne, a graduate student in our program, knew John Denver personally when she was growing up in Aspen. Many of us at the ICTE knew John only briefly from his visit in 1990, and of course, by growing up with and loving his songs, TV events, and movies. Jeanne shared with us some of her memories of John, a man who inspired and shaped Jeanne's career choices, and we thank her very much indeed for these wonderful memories.
We also thank all of these special people and all of you from the bottom of our hearts. It is so unfortunate that tragedies are often what bring us together. Our own goals are to allow the scholarship endowment account to grow. Already it has become the most prestigous research award we give annually, and the competition for this award is very high resulting in many more qualified candidates than we can fund. If you would like to continue to help us with this scholarship, we would be greatly honored to have your continued support. We sincerely hope that we can stay in touch with all of our new friends. We wish you all well and encourage everyone to keep John's spirit, passion, and love for our environment and the world's children and impoverished alive. Help us take responsibility for our actions and those of our governments.
Best wishes,
Bette, Patrick, and Bernadette
P.S. In case, you have not had a recent update, read on and let us provide you with news of our first two recipients of this award. By the way, many of our graduate students have come to St. Louis from around the globe to study tropical ecology and conservation. Indeed, the ICTE, established in 1990, has become the premier institute in the United States for the study of tropical biology and conservation. Yet, this means that our students may be unfamiliar with John's songs. Each student that receives an award is also given a copy of the two CD-set from the Wildlife Concert John gave in New York. Both Ivan and Luciana took these CDs (actually cassette tapes, so that they could listen to them in the field) with them to the Amazon of Colombia and northeast Brazil, respectively.
We first awarded the scholarship in March of 1998 to Ivan Jiménez of Colombia. Ivan is working with threatened species of curassows, which are large ground birds related to turkeys. These birds serve critical ecosystem functions through their roles as seed dispersers and seed predators. However, many species are under threat, and several are highly endangered, because of over-hunting. Ivan and his collaborators are the first scientists to be able to follow these birds all day long and consequently, their work is providing critical information about their life history, diet, and home range requirements. Such information is necessary to understand what size area and variety of forest habitats are needed to ensure survival of these magnificent birds.
Luciana Griz, from Brazil, was awarded the second John Denver Memorial Scholarship in April 1999. Luciana left for the northeast of Brazil in August where she is studying regeneration of trees in a tropical dry forest system. Caatinga (the Brazilian name for this ecosystem) once covered nearly 11% of Brazil, but very few intact forest stands remain. Luciana's work is the first step in understanding the processes needed to restore this ecosystem and preserve the unique set of plants and animals it contains. Both Luciana and Ivan were selected to receive the award following a competition where students submitted research proposals for review by a panel of 5-6 tropical scientists from the University, Missouri Botanical Garden, and the Saint Louis Zoo. Their proposals were ranked highest by this panel.
Subject: Update on John Denver Memorial Scholarship and a big thank you to all
A few weeks ago we sent letters regarding the status of the John Denver Memorial Scholarship in Tropical Ecology to a few dear friends we have met since that tragic day John Denver was lost to us all. We want to take the opportunity to tell you that we have met the initial goals set by the Kroeger Family's challenge grant and to thank all of you. We also want to especially acknowledge and thank our many new friends who have worked so hard and have given so much of their time and energy to help us create a living legacy to the environmental causes that John Denver believed so fervently.
As you know, following the unexpected and tragic death of John Denver in October 1997, we, like so many others, wanted to do something that would be a constant reminder to us and others of his love and sense of responsibility for the environment. Our idea was to establish a named research scholarship that would be competitively awarded to a graduate student pursuing research on the ecology and conservation of tropical ecosystems. John Denver was the first recipient of the World Ecology Award given by the International Center for Tropical Ecology, and he kindly agreed to serve on our Advisory Board. As a member of this Board, his advice was sought on nominations and future recipients of this award, and he was key in getting Jacques Cousteau to accept the award just a few years later. Once we announced our intention to establish this scholarship, we received a phone call from Hal Kroeger. Hal and Carole Kroeger were long-time friends of John Denver, and wanted to contribute to making the scholarship a living legacy of John's environmental work. After talking with John's family, the Kroeger's contributed one-half of a $50,000 challenge grant and proceeded to help us raise the BALANCE [second half]. We have now met the challenge and have awarded this prestigious scholarship ($2500) in spring 1998 and 1999 (see below). We will shortly open competition for the John Denver Memorial scholarship in the year 2000. However, we have met this goal because of so many people, people that in their own way have been moved by John Denver's passion for the environment and human welfare as so clearly depicted in his songs and his actions.
We would like to recognize these very special people here and publicly thank them.
Hal & Carole Kroeger: truly wonderful people - it's no surprise they were such good friends of John Denver
Ron Bonine: Ron has been instrumental in helping us reach so many of John Denver's friends and fans around the globe. Ron and his wife Kim have kept in close contact with us and with Denver fans and friends, and we look forward to staying close to our new friends.
Mumze.com: Pamela "Mumze" Keil created a special web-page http://www.johndenver.net/ that provided so many of you with the information about the scholarship and with a link to the ICTE. Moreover, she provided an avenue for many of you to get one of Rosemary Good's sweatshirts which benefitted the scholarship. Not done yet, Mumze created an auction page in 1999 especially for items benefitting the scholarship!
Conny Staedtler: Conny from Herne, Germany wrote an entire web site page about the scholarship called "Voice of America" http://home.t-online.de/home/rainbow13/scholar.htm, also linking the ICTE website to her home page. Moreover, Conny wrote innumerable letters to German organizations, companies, and others on behalf of the scholarship and obtained many donations for us, including one from Porsche! She and her kids at the Comprehensive School Herne have been wonderful and we have greatly appreciated all the photos, drawings, cards, letters they have sent!
Rosemary Good: Rosemary labored long and hard for the scholarship donating 100% of the proceeds of every John Denver sweatshirt and cap she embroidered. The shirts and caps are lovely, and we are sure reflect on both the wonderful spirit of John Denver AND Rosemary Good!
Mary Ledford: Mary published an article on the scholarship and photo in her newsletter, and organized the Let this be a Voice symposium, with Pamela Beasley and Rory Young, at which the ICTE was represented. Proceeds from the John Denver charity auction at the symposium were used partially to support the scholarship and other causes John believed in. This was also a great opportunity for Bette to meet many friends and supporters of John Denver and the scholarship.
Christine Moon: Our UK connection, Christine placed an article in her newsletter, and held an auction of the video featuring John acccepting the World Ecology Award at the ICTE in fall 1990.
Christine Smith: Christine wrote several articles about the scholarship and the ICTE during her wonderful tributes to John Denver, and inspired us with her own words and passion for people and the environment (if you have not already seen Christine's tribute to John visit http://www.vtinet.com/johndenver/.
Hal Bidlack: Hal as Windstar Communications Director linked the Windstar website to the ICTE shortly after the challenge grant and memorial scholarship were established.
Emily Parris: Emily as editor of Rocky Mountain High email newsletter included several articles regarding the scholarship helping us to get the word out!
Dottie Honer and Carol Blevins: Dottie and Carol included a very nice article regarding the scholarship in Hearts in Harmony magazine.
David Gorell: Our Australian connection, David linked Australia to the ICTE and scholarship through his Sing Australia fan club website.
Grace Sylvan: Grace, creator of "KidsDomain.com" website, also helped to reach many of you by placing information about the scholarship on her page.
Pat Cavanaugh: Pat helped us out in her home state of Pennslyvania and beyond by writing an article promoting the scholarship in the newsletter to the friends of Pennyslvania and also reprinting this article in the magazine Hearts in Harmony.
Deb Perry: Deb linked our website on the scholarship to Rory's "World family gathering page", and later helped advertise Rosemary's shirts for the scholarship.
Jim Horn: A member of John's band, Jim donated a CD and an autograghed photo for auction to benefit the scholarship.
Steve Rafferty: Steve from the UK donated a Yellowstone print for auction.
Windstar Kids: These remarkable kids decided that wanted to donate all proceeds from the contest they won for a roadside cleanup to the scholarship. We are sure John would have loved these kids!
Jeanne Fair: Jeanne, a graduate student in our program, knew John Denver personally when she was growing up in Aspen. Many of us at the ICTE knew John only briefly from his visit in 1990, and of course, by growing up with and loving his songs, TV events, and movies. Jeanne shared with us some of her memories of John, a man who inspired and shaped Jeanne's career choices, and we thank her very much indeed for these wonderful memories.
We also thank all of these special people and all of you from the bottom of our hearts. It is so unfortunate that tragedies are often what bring us together. Our own goals are to allow the scholarship endowment account to grow. Already it has become the most prestigous research award we give annually, and the competition for this award is very high resulting in many more qualified candidates than we can fund. If you would like to continue to help us with this scholarship, we would be greatly honored to have your continued support. We sincerely hope that we can stay in touch with all of our new friends. We wish you all well and encourage everyone to keep John's spirit, passion, and love for our environment and the world's children and impoverished alive. Help us take responsibility for our actions and those of our governments.
Best wishes,
Bette, Patrick, and Bernadette
P.S. In case, you have not had a recent update, read on and let us provide you with news of our first two recipients of this award. By the way, many of our graduate students have come to St. Louis from around the globe to study tropical ecology and conservation. Indeed, the ICTE, established in 1990, has become the premier institute in the United States for the study of tropical biology and conservation. Yet, this means that our students may be unfamiliar with John's songs. Each student that receives an award is also given a copy of the two CD-set from the Wildlife Concert John gave in New York. Both Ivan and Luciana took these CDs (actually cassette tapes, so that they could listen to them in the field) with them to the Amazon of Colombia and northeast Brazil, respectively.
We first awarded the scholarship in March of 1998 to Ivan Jiménez of Colombia. Ivan is working with threatened species of curassows, which are large ground birds related to turkeys. These birds serve critical ecosystem functions through their roles as seed dispersers and seed predators. However, many species are under threat, and several are highly endangered, because of over-hunting. Ivan and his collaborators are the first scientists to be able to follow these birds all day long and consequently, their work is providing critical information about their life history, diet, and home range requirements. Such information is necessary to understand what size area and variety of forest habitats are needed to ensure survival of these magnificent birds.
Luciana Griz, from Brazil, was awarded the second John Denver Memorial Scholarship in April 1999. Luciana left for the northeast of Brazil in August where she is studying regeneration of trees in a tropical dry forest system. Caatinga (the Brazilian name for this ecosystem) once covered nearly 11% of Brazil, but very few intact forest stands remain. Luciana's work is the first step in understanding the processes needed to restore this ecosystem and preserve the unique set of plants and animals it contains. Both Luciana and Ivan were selected to receive the award following a competition where students submitted research proposals for review by a panel of 5-6 tropical scientists from the University, Missouri Botanical Garden, and the Saint Louis Zoo. Their proposals were ranked highest by this panel.
Bette Loiselle, Patrick Osborne, and Bernadette Dalton <ic...@umsl.edu>
St. Louis, MMO USA
------------------------------------------------------
- Tuesday, December 07, 1999 at 13:03:51 (CST)
This article was posted from The World Family of John Denver
Gathering Center, at http://www.john-denver.org/JD/memobook.html.
You are invited to drop by and join in on the celebration of
life, and the wonder of living.
Christine Moon
Dec 7, 1999, 3:00:00 AM12/7/99
to
Thank you for the acknowledgement - I'm glad my small part made a useful
contribution. As John said, if you do what you can do, I'll do what I can
do, and together we can make a difference. Together we HAVE made a
difference!
contribution. As John said, if you do what you can do, I'll do what I can
do, and together we can make a difference. Together we HAVE made a
difference!
Peace, in John's memory,
Christine
moon...@netcomuk.co.uk
"Friends of John Denver"
http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~moonstar/fojd.html
Bette Loiselle, Patrick Osborne, and Bernadette Dalton wrote in message ...
allth...@ftc-i.net
Dec 7, 1999, 3:00:00 AM12/7/99
to
Would like to add my thanks to all who gave so much of their time and themselves to this!
Best,
Dot
Ellens104
Dec 8, 1999, 3:00:00 AM12/8/99
to
Could you post the adress again so we could donate for the Holiday season? And
for those of you who celebrate Christmas, go to the Planet-2000 and plant your
tree somewhere in the world. Ellen S. Omaha, Ne.
for those of you who celebrate Christmas, go to the Planet-2000 and plant your
tree somewhere in the world. Ellen S. Omaha, Ne.
Rosemary Good
Dec 8, 1999, 3:00:00 AM12/8/99
to
Hi Ellen,
The website for the International Center for Tropical Ecology at the Univ.
of Missouri-St. Louis is
http://www.umsl.edu/~biology/icte/
Look for information on their scholarships, and in sending a donation,
please write "John Denver Memorial Scholarship" on the lower left-hand
corner of the check. And thank you for your continued support. Their
research on the environment is so outstanding, and it's thrilling for us to
see that a graduate student is rewarded each year under the name of John
Denver.
Rosemary
--
ROSEMA...@prodigy.net
Ellens104 <elle...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:19991207231625...@ng-bj1.aol.com...
Flyushome
Dec 10, 1999, 3:00:00 AM12/10/99
to
What wonderful news! It comes at a time when I think we all could use some re
John. Thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make this dream a reality.
John. Thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make this dream a reality.
Peace,
Pat
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