Apr 23 2008
Demonstrating that the kids of today care very much about the shape of our planet tomorrow, recently launched ZooKazoo.com, the safer, online destination for kids 6-12 years old, announced that nearly 2,000 votes were cast during its first-ever Earth Day Challenge. Asked to choose from among five environmental causes, ZooKazoo members cast over 700 votes for Recycling as their number one environmental concern.
The other four notable causes, which included Animal Conservation, Energy Conservation, Protecting Forests, and Protecting Oceans, virtually tied for second place, each receiving approximately half as many votes as Recycling.
“We were blown away by the response from our young members, who took time out from the fun and games on our virtual world to show us just how much they care about the real world they live in,” commented Dr. David Dwyer, the Chief Operating Officer and a co-founder of ZooKazoo. “It is with great pride that ZooKazoo makes a donation of $5,000 in support of Recycling on behalf of our KaZoobians.”
Since ZooKazoo made its official debut 0n April 3, visitors to the site were presented with 30 e-postcards, each of which contained fun facts or tips about one of the five Earth Day-related charitable causes. Real-life national charities were selected to coincide with each of these causes as potential benefactors including the World Wildlife Fund, Center for Resource Conservation, Keep America Beautiful, Oceana and The Nature Conservancy. The kids were then encouraged to become advocates for their favorite cause by sending or sharing postcards with a friend. Each postcard sent represented a “vote.”
In addition to the online initiative, ZooKazoo created a school project component to the Earth Day Challenge. Participating classrooms were encouraged to download the postcards and share them as part of their Earth Day awareness. In exchange they could win either a pizza party for the class or a gift certificate to Amazon.com.
“One of the primary tenets of ZooKazoo is to help them express themselves and show them that they can make a difference in the world,” commented Dwyer. “Based on their enthusiasm for this inaugural campaign, we hope the Earth Day Challenge is just the first of many charitable initiatives.”