Thank you to everyone who joined us on June 13 to make Strides for Snow Leopards! Over 700 supporters from more than 50 countries joined together to raise awareness for snow leopard conservation and planetary health. We have been humbled by the overwhelming response from around the world and are so appreciative of everyone who participated and shared photos and videos of their experiences.
Together, we collectively moved over 3200 km (nearly 2000 miles) and logged over 1000 hours of activity! While many of you ran, walked, or biked, we were blown away by some of the creative activities you chose to partake in – from dancing to yoga and shooting hoops to hula-hooping! Even a few of your pets made strides to help protect their wild cousins. And not only did you support snow leopard conservation, you also got out in your own backyards to experience the environment closest to you!
Many participated solo, especially with some pandemic lockdowns still in effect. But many of you participated as a group, with 45 teams raising over $11,000 USD in peer-to-peer fundraising. Overall and with everyone’s incredible efforts, we raised a whopping $53,000 USD – zooming past our initial goal of $40,000 USD, in honor of 40 years of snow leopard conservation.
And we can’t forget a special shout out to our Executive Director, Charu Mishra, who had to adjust his plan at the last minute due to the extended lockdowns, yet still managed to run an astounding 64 km (40 miles) on his treadmill while gaining more than 3000 meters of elevation. To put that in perspective, he ran in 7 hours as far as a snow leopard might travel in a day while also climbing to the height where snow leopards are commonly found in the mountains.
Over the course of one year, this global event evolved into more than we could have initially imagined. You made this opportunity to build community around action possible, and we are so excited to continue to host this annual event that brings together people from all around the world and lets us engage both with each other and our environments. Thank you again so much for participating and supporting our conservation work, and we cannot wait to see you next year! And don’t miss the video recap below to see how everyone participated!
Thank you, thank you, thank you. You are more appreciated than you’ll ever know!
All for this beautiful felines .Ty