Sirenian International, Inc.

The Van Wagner "Reading for Mermaids" Model

For several years Heather bought the Healthy Planet Adoption Kit with her allowance money. This year when renewal time rolled around she said, "Mom, I wish I could send a lot of money to help the manatees."

The family talked about it over dinner and came up with an idea - why not sponsor a reading contest to benefit mermaids? What a wonderful match for Sirenian International's educational goal - READING to raise funds for manatee and dugong research, education, and conservation projects around the world!

The Healthy Planet Adoption Kit features our Mermaid Ambassadors. Mermaid Ambassadors are fictional characters -- each Ambassador represents one of the five species or subspecies of manatees and dugong around the world. The Van Wagner's have donated this model to Sirenian International. Use it to form your own reading group and raise money to support manatee & dugong research, education, and conservation projects around the world via Sirenian International's Grant Program. Below are the "contest rules" designed by the Van Wagners. Remember that all donations made to Sirenian International are tax-deductible within the limits of the IRS Code for 501(c)(3) Corporations.

Sirenian Ambassadors (c) 2000 Sirenian International
Photos (c) Doug Perrine, Innerspace Visions, http://seapics.com; Toba Aquarium; Brandon D. Cole, http://www.brandoncole.com/

Mermaid Reading Contest

Hey kids! Are you ready for a contest to help protect manatees and dugongs around the world? Grab your favorite books and let's go!

  • Identify an adult to help coordinate your contest. An adult should help keep records to make sure all the donations are tax-deductible under the IRS Rules. This might be your Mom or Dad, your teacher, your librarian, your swim coach, or scout leader.

  • Identify the kids you want to challenge. They might be friends in your class at school, your scout troop, your library group, your swim team, your dance class, your karate class, etc. Use your imagination to form a group. Keep the group small enough to manage, but big enough to raise lots of $$$ for manatees & dugongs!

  • Set a time period for the contest. We recommend 4-6 weeks. It should have a start date for getting pledges, a start and stop date for reading books, and then a week after the stop date for collecting pledges.

  • Go out and collect pledges! Talk to friends who are not in the contest, relatives, and neighbors. Tell them that you are reading for mermaids! They will say "What? Mermaids aren't REAL! Then you can tell them all about manatees and dugongs and how sailors used to think they were mermaids. Tell them how there are only 4 species left in the world! Tell them that individual populations of manatees and dugongs are fragmented due to loss of habitat, over-hunting, and localized poaching. Tell them that manatees and dugongs are also endangered due to competition for space with human beings and how 100s are injured or killed by boats each year! You can print out the What are Seacows and WHY should I care? pages at http://www.sirenian.org/sirenians.html and keep it with your PLEDGE FORM so that you will have background information at your fingertips.

  • Use the PLEDGE FORM below to keep a record of your sponsors. Have your sponsors pledge an amount per page for each page you read during the contest. This can be anything from $0.01 per page to $1.00 per page to... well there should be no limit! IMPORTANT: Set a goal of how many pages you expect to read during the contest period. That way, your sponsors will know exactly how much they are pledging, if you meet your goal. For example, if your goal is to read 500 pages and our sponsor pledges $0.01 per page. Then the pledge is maximized at $5.00. If your sponsor pledges $0.10 per page, then the pledge is maximized at $50.00. Be realistic! In the Van Wagner model, kids read an average of 500 pages each during the 27 day contest period. Some read only 100 pages, one child read 1000 pages! Read at your own reading level. In other words, if you have a mixed "grade level" of friends in your contest, 2nd graders should read books at the 2nd grade level and 6th graders should read books at the 6th grade level.

  • IF you don't want to get per page pledges, your family can simply give a single donation for your participation. There is no minimum - the idea is to get kids excited about reading, too!

  • You should have PRIZES! Sirenian International will donate 3 prizes to any reading group that raises $100 or more. You can pick from a Manatee & Dugong Poster, an Endangered Mermaids Video, and/or a Healthy Planet Mermaid Adoption Kit. Prizes should go to the children who raise the most money for manatees and dugongs. If you have a small group, you might only give out one prize. IF you have a large group, you might consider giving out 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Place Prizes.

  • You can also get local businesses to donate prizes, if you would like.

  • START READING! Devote a certain time each day to "Reading for Mermaids". This time should not interfere with your regular school work, it should not interfere with your chores at home, either! Keep track of the books you read and the number of pages in each book on the READING FORM below.

  • During the week after the stop date for reading, collect the pledges from our sponsors.

  • Hold a Celebration Event, such as a picnic or pizza party and give out the prizes to the winners! IF you are located within 50 miles of Fredericksburg, Virginia, or in the Boston area, Sirenian International will try to have one of our scientists come and talk at your celebration!

    PLEDGE FORM PDF | PLEDGE FORM EXCEL FILE | PLEDGE FORM HTML

    READING FORM PDF | READING FORM EXCEL FILE | READING FORM HTML

    (c) 2000-2001 Sirenian International, Inc. Updated 25 May 2002.
    SNAIL MAIL TO: Sirenian International, Inc., 200 Stonewall Drive, Fredericksburg, VA 22401 USA
    Sirenian International, Inc. is a non-profit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) corporation.
    All contributions are tax deductible within the limits of the law.
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