What Kids Save Apes Is Kids Save Apes is an internet based club, created and run by 12 year old Haley Stern, where kids all over the world can raise money and awareness in their communities to help save endangered apes and meet online to share their success. With the money KSA gets from members and supporters, we make donations in the name of KSA to many trusted organizations who are working to make apes habitats better and create anti-poaching patrols, etc. Our motto is "Educate the People, Save the Apes" because although the apes are in dire need of help, I also believe that people should learn more about apes. Humans can sometimes be ignorant, they consider apes- monkeys, and monkeys - apes. I once heard a parent teaching her young kid at the zoo that gorillas were scary, evil, man-eating creatures, when really, they are very gentle herbivores. (only eat plants) Our mission statement, though very ambitious (I made it when I was 10) is to someday, somehow, create a better planet for our primate cousins, and all animals, and... to make just ONE poacher put down his knife and realize that humans should be in peace with all other creatures. That`s my dream. If you would like to join, please go to the Membership Page. Thank you.   How I Became Involved In 2007, I went to the Bronx Zoo, and was blown away by the gorillas. I thought they were the most amazing creatures. My parents told me I should see the movie "Gorillas in the Mist", the story of Dian Fossey and her journey in Africa, observing the vanishing mountain gorilla population. The movie was probably one of the most moving movies I have ever seen, and the poaching scenes at the end just made me so upset... Usually when movies shock me like that I can say that "oh, it's okay, it's not true." But this time... I couldn't say that. My parents said that they would help me "adopt" a mountain gorilla from the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International. After I did that, I started thinking, “this is really, really bad, and people really need to pay more attention to this... there must be something more I can do?" I emailed someone from the DFGFI and said “I may be only 10, but I really want to help save the lives of gorillas. Poachers should not be ruining the lives of these beautiful creatures. Please tell me what more I can do to help the gorillas, from where I live…” Then the idea came to me suddenly. It was simple... If I got everyone I knew to help out, we could be raising a lot of money for this and helping all species of apes… I think my friends thought I was crazy at first. I was… crazily inspired. :) I told them that I was planning on starting a club to raise money for the endangered apes… and I was going to call it “Kids Save Apes”. We went around with a Petition to Stop Poaching around our school, and did some awareness-raising events in our town. That’s when I thought that it would be so cool if we could get kids all around the globe to help out. I really don’t know how that part happened, it all happened so fast… but Kids Save Apes was featured in Positive News US, The Gorilla Journal, and the Burlington Free Press, and had links many online blogs and sites. We have over 40 youth members and tons of supporters from across the globe now, some more involved than others, but I know that no matter what happens, I’ll always fight for these magnificent primates… -Haley
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