Dear Friends,
2024 is the year! In 2024, we hope to agree on a price for the Cortes Children's Forest and, finally, begin the purchasing process. Your help now is critical for supporting this final step in our collective journey toward protecting the Children's Forest in perpetuity.
Remember, your gifts between now and Giving Tuesday, Nov 28, will be doubled through the generosity of an incredible patron who has pledged $10,000 in matching funds.
Please contribute to our Giving Tuesday campaign here. Your help also supports current stewardship efforts, such as the Coast Salish language project. The Klahoose First Nation, Children's Forest Trust, and Cortes Island Academy recently collaborated on an exciting Coast Salish language project. Klahoose elder and language teacher Jessie Louie met students in the Children's Forest to share traditions and stories about forest plants, past and present, and teach Ayajuthem plant names. Using Ayajuthem ethnography, the students created interpretive signs for plants along the "School-to-Sea" trail by the Cortes School (School District 72).
The Children's Forest Trust extends deep gratitude to Jessie Louie for her generosity and knowledge-sharing. Emote!
"The language project was very valuable for the students as it was an opportunity for them to engage with indigenous ways of knowing and it brought a valuable lens to our science course."
—Tosh Harvey, Children's Forest alumnus and co-facilitator of Life Science curriculum at CIAWe thank you sincerely for all the ways you support the Cortes Children's Forest!