“In the tapestry of time, each generation adds its own vibrant color.”
~ Author Unknown
Hello and Happy Monday to everyone! We hope you had a great weekend while we gear up for another wacky week with a holiday right smack in the middle!
I took this photo of the late, great, Stallion Singlefoot in 2017. I could not help but think of this photo as I took the photo below yesterday of his daughter, 2005 Mare Spotted Blue.
She is the spitting image of her father! I think of this amazing stallion every time I see her.
I share this because this is what we are fighting so hard for. We are fighting for these iconic wild horses and their legacies to live on. Our North Dakota wild horses are special indeed! While we wait to see how much damage has been done with GonaCon, and how much of a reproductive herd we actually have left, the fight for state and federal protection continues.
Things are ramping up here. My calendar is getting full of meetings as we prepare for the 2025 North Dakota Legislative Session. Last week’s meetings included a very insightful meeting with our tourism director. This meeting was important because we are suggesting that our legislation fall under North Dakota’s tourism department. Our tourism director shared her thoughts and let us know what it would take for her office to take this on.
In case you missed it, we shared our legislation in our blog last week: https://chwha.org/2024/12/24/yes-virginia-there-is-a-santa-claus/
This week’s meetings include meetings with The Medora Chamber of Commerce, Governor Armstrong and Senator Hoeven’s offices, as well as touching base with our state legislators. It will be a very busy “short” work week for sure! As always, we will keep you posted on these meetings.
Our Dickinson Area Chamber of Commerce starts their Coffee with the Legislators on January 11th! For those of you who are local, these will be held at the Dickinson Public Library. For those of you who cannot make it in person, we will share the video link as soon as it is available.
Two years ago, we found that the Coffee with the Legislators was a great way to speak with our state legislators as they prepared for and navigated through the 2023 session. We will be utilizing this opportunity again this year as we work to get support for our legislation. It is also a great way to speak to the public and help educate them on this legislation, what it means and how it benefits the state of North Dakota.
Once we get our bill numbers assigned, we have plans to run Op-eds in local papers to help get support for our legislation.
In addition to all that, we are also getting ready for our virtual summit: Putting the “A” in Advocacy – Arming Yourself with Knowledge to Effectively Advocate in 2025 Virtual Educational Summit – that will be held January 31st – February 3, 2025!
Over 200 people have signed up to be a part of this amazing event! At last count, I believe we are coming up on 30 incredibly diverse speakers!! We will be updating the list this week. You can view the details about this event on our website, including how to sign up to be a part of it, here: https://chwha.org/2025-wild-horse-summit/
We are starting to work on the schedule and plan to have that ready at the beginning of January. This will be an incredible virtual summit, and we are grateful to our friend Heather at Save Our Wild Horses for co-hosting this event with us!
Website fees, Zoom subscriptions, adveristing, Medora and Dickinson Chamber memberships, legislation work, legal fees and other general expenses add up quickly – ESPECIALLY for a small nonprofit like ours!
We have TWO DAYS left of 2024! That means that we have TWO DAYS to maximize our $2500 matching donation that will help us meet our fundraising goal! A generous donor has offered to donate up to $2500! We need your help to maximize this donation! As of this morning, we still need $1,000 to maximize this donation! Can you help us? This generous donation means that every dollar you donate is AUTOMATICALLY DOUBLED!!! You can make your tax-deductible donation here: https://secure.everyaction.com/cBmDbRA6cUuzERpShcQOCg2
Thank you again for your continued support in 2024! We plan on doing some amazing things in 2025! We hope you will all continue to support us as our Fight for the Spirit of the Badlands goes on as we seek state and federal legislation to make sure we NEVER face the threat of removal of these historic wild horses like we did the last couple of years! NO OTHER ORGANIZATION IS WORKING WITH US TO PROTECT THESE HISTORIC WILD HORSES! We will need every single one of you to make this happen!
Have a great week!
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