By Vernita Gundy 

Self Sufficient Living… HMMMMMM…What is that? I am a US citizen who lives in the City of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania and although I’ve heard of self-sufficient living, I have never learned what it actually meant until now. Self-sufficient living means self reliance in learning to grow your own, make your own, sell your own and bake your own, for homesteading, urban homesteading or mini farms. 

 I’ve been in Costa Rica volunteering for Kids Saving the Rainforest the last 3 months and I have slowly started to understand what it is all about and how important it is to change our way of living so we can all be on this earth for years to come. 

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Filed under: Kids Saving the Rainforest on January 16th, 2012
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By Volunteer Christine Ellenburg 

Some animals are happy to be pets, like cats, dogs and fish. Other animals want to live in the wild, like monkeys. My name is Nina and I’m a spider monkey. I started off happily in the wild. 

Life was great I would wake up in the morning to the “hooo doottt hooo doottt” of the Motmots. I would go for breakfast with my brother Manny or a swing with my sister Stella until one day I woke up to a different sound… 

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Filed under: Kids Saving the Rainforest on January 8th, 2012
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There’s a whole new world of terms out there that may be confusing to you, such as Carbon Footprint and Carbon Neutral.  We are going to explain them and hopefully teach you to reduce your carbon footprint! 

So, just what does Carbon Footprint mean?  Carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide given out through the use of fossil fuels by a person on a daily basis.

Do you want to know how much carbon do you emit?  There are lots of websites on the internet to calculate your footprint, but the one listed below is one that seems to work easily. www.zerofootprintoffsets.com   (Please note that you have to say that you live in the US or Canada to get your calculations).

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Filed under: Kids Saving the Rainforest on November 29th, 2011
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Written by Melissa Ellenburg, Volunteer

This is one of 3 children’s stories written by the 16 year old Ellenburg Triplets.  Their 3 stories will become a a book to be sold by KSTR to teach children the importance of saving the rainforest.  It will be available next year.  

There once was a monkey named Marcel. He lived in a beautiful rainforest filled with perky parrots and colorful flowers. Marcel was very happy here. He swung in the trees and ate fruit and bugs all day long. 

One, day big monsters made out of metal came to the rainforest and started cutting trees down. They made loud roars and scared Marcel and all his friends and family. The people driving the machines said, “We need these trees to make paper and all kinds of things.” 

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Filed under: Kids Saving the Rainforest on November 29th, 2011
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A short story By Volunteer Kevin Ellenburg

The Petersons were very excited. They were going to Costa Rica! They had heard lots of fantastic things about the country, and they couldn’t wait to see the monkeys. “I wonder if they like bananas”, said Tommy, the youngest of the Petersons. “Of course they do” said Mr. Peterson. “ALL monkeys love bananas”.

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Filed under: Kids Saving the Rainforest on October 17th, 2011
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Pablo Porras-Peñaranda

By Julia Paltseva

Kids Saving the Rainforest is proud to present the newest member of its permanent staff – Pablo Porras-Peñaranda. Pablo, a biologist by training, will now serve as the Volunteer Coordinator. KSTR is a local non-profit organization based in Manuel Antonio whose goal is to preserve and educate about the rainforest and its many animals. As the organization’s popularity and mission has grown, the number of interested volunteers has increased.

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Filed under: Kids Saving the Rainforest on September 21st, 2011
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Janine & Aislin, 9 years old

We are very proud of KSTR’s co-founders, Janine Licare and Aislin Livingstone.  They have both just graduated from two very prestigious colleges, Janine from Stanford in California and Aislin from McGill in Montreal.  Congratulations to you both!  Janine starts right away with a two-year program, Teach For America, teaching elementary school children (with English as a second language) in East Los Angeles.  Janine will concurrently be getting a Master’s Degree in Education at Loyola Marymount University.  We are thrilled that she will be able to teach these kids about the rainforest, it’s destruction, and then empower them to save it!

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Filed under: Kids Saving the Rainforest on July 22nd, 2011
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