I don't usually allow solicitations on this listerserve, but this is a special case which is closely aligned with the goals of the BEST Society and involves BEST members who are putting sustainability into practice. Alec Spaulding (2014 Intern, BioEnergy & Sustainability School, Soil & Water Science, UF-IFAS) is working full-time onsite with a school/orphanage in Haiti to develop sustainable strategies for feeding the fish in their aquaculture farm. Reginald Toussaint (MS 2013, SNRE/SWS, and currently a PhD student in SWS), a native of Haiti, is also working onsite to support various sustainability initiatives at the school/orphanage. I visited with them onsite myself for a week in October to advise and support the BEST work that they are doing in Haiti. Currently, the school/orphanage has to buy fish food which is a huge expense for them, so they often don't have enough. They use the fish to feed 1,300 schoolchildren. This is the only protein that these children get and it only amounts to a few grams a week. Alec has put together a crowd-funding campaign to raise enough funds to cover 6 months of fish feed. You can see a brief video, read more about the campaign, and make a contribution at: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/feed-the-fish-feed-the-haitians Their goal is to raise $9,000 within the next 20 days. If a lot of people contribute even a small amount, we can help them reach that goal. Please consider making a contribution to feed the fish and the children, and support the work of these BESTers. Thank you for your support. -- ********************************************************************** Dr. Ann C. Wilkie Tel: (352)392-8699 Soil and Water Science Department Fax: (352)392-7008 University of Florida-IFAS P.O. Box 110960 E-mail: [log in to unmask] Gainesville, FL 32611-0960 ______________________________________________________________________ Campus location: Environmental Microbiology Laboratory (Bldg. 246). http://campusmap.ufl.edu/ ______________________________________________________________________ BioEnergy and Sustainable Technology Society http://grove.ufl.edu/~bests/ **********************************************************************