25th Annual Gala "A Wild Night for Wild Life",
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About the event
The Southwest Environmental Center is a grassroots organization that works specifically to protect and restore vital local habitats of the Southwest such as Otera Mesa, The Rio Grande, as well as work to protect endangered species of the area such as the Mexican Gray Wolf.
Our "Wild Night for Wild Life" gala is our largest annual fundraiser that is held in order to help us continue our mission to protect and restore native wildlife and their habitats in the Southwestern Borderlands, through advocacy, education, and on the ground projects. This year will be our very special 25th year anniversary gala.
Why should you sponsor?
There is currently a global extinction crisis. Plants and animals are disappearing at a rate 1000 times faster than they would if humans were not around. The Southwest Environmental Center uses the funding obtained to restore native wildlife and their habitats. With your sponsorship, you will help us fight for the creatures and lands that have no voice for themselves, you will help us complete our on-the-ground restoration projects such as the restoration of the La Mancha Wetlands. Specifically, your funds may help us in creating advocacy against groups that engage in Wildlife Killing Contests (WKC's/ Year-round no-limit killing contests with prizes) that are held regularly in New Mexico as well as other states that target foxes, prairie dogs, skunks, badgers, bobcats and most commonly coyotes. These contests are not only barbaric, but legal, and despite common knowledge do NOT "manage wildlife" but actually throw off the delicate balance of life in the Southwest. Although we do have many causes, our main concern is the protection of the Mexican Gray Wolf (Lobo) population, which is at one of its all-time lows. There are currently only 113 wolves in the wild, with only a little over 300 in captivity, it is imperative that we continue to put pressure on the U.S. FWS to keep releasing captive wolves into the wild.
Shaylin TerrinKevin Bixby-Executive Director
Son of a naval officer, Kevin grew up all over the world, but the American Southwest has always been home. While attending school in Oakland he began his activist career volunteering at the Berkeley Ecology Center. After graduating with a B.A. in biology from Dartmouth College in 1978, he returned to the San Francisco Bay Area and began volunteering at Friends of the Earth where he rubbed elbows with the late, great David Brower. Working to save condors and whales by day, he made a living by driving a San Francisco taxicab at night. Realizing that more education might be useful, Kevin set off to the School of Natural Resources at the University of Michigan in 1985, where he earned a Master’s degree in Natural Resources Policy. But the West beckoned, and in 1988 Kevin moved to New Mexico with his future wife, Lisa LaRocque, and started the Southwest Environmental Center in 1991.
Peter Sloan-Field Organizer
Born in Seattle and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, Peter is a recent transplant to New Mexico, where he has fallen in love with the landscape, the sky, the sunsets and stars of the Land of Enchantment. He has been an activist since his time as an undergraduate at the University of Alabama, where he studied music and philosophy. At SWEC Peter works to mobilize public support for Mexican gray wolf reintroduction, banning wildlife killing contests, and protecting the Otero Mesa. Peter has an MA in music from Mills College in Oakland, California, and when not hanging out with coyotes and wolves, he teaches music to children and other wild creatures around town.
Ashley Martinez- Membership Coordinator and Canvass Director
Ashley considers the Southwest her home. She was born in Albuquerque and spent most of her life between the Duke City and El Paso, TX. Her passion for wildlife conservation started at a young age, while spending her childhood summers taking pack trips on horses and hiking with her father in the Gila wilderness. Her advocacy work for conservation and social change began right out of high school. While attending college, she started canvassing for several different regional and national organizations in Albuquerque. Ashley started her work with the Southwest Environmental Center as a canvasser in the summer of 2010. In her free time, she creates mixed media art and is active in the art and music scene of El Paso, TX.
Contact the Organizer Contact the OrganizerMore Info
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251-500 attendees expected
50% Male Attendees
50% Female Attendees
Contact the Organizer
Select a Package
2 available packages from US$500 to US$1000
https://www.sponsormyevent.com/25th-annual-gala-a-wild-night-for-wild-life-las-crucesMention in newsletters, mention at time of event, repeat ad on local NPR and KTAL station with other listed sponsors, tax deductible
10 available
Mention on newsletters, public sponsor thank you at time of event, tax deductible
10 available