Although we are not setting an official stretch goal, a few folks still wanted to donate. Any money raised today or tomorrow will go for gas and safety equipment for the John Deere Gator to support student and faculty research. Thank you for being a "Gator Donator" and making our first crowdfunding effort a big success!!!

- With gratitude from our team (Paul Havemann, Sarah Oktay, Shane Waddell, and Matt Wilkerson)

We have hit our goal of $15,000.00 right on the dot two days ahead of schedule. Thank you so so much. We are overwhelmed by your generosity. We will be in contact with each of you to offer our personal thanks and to distribute everything from social media shout outs to personalized gator tours.

Thank you for helping us get students and researchers out in the field.

We are just 3 days away from wrapping up the campaign. We have made great progress towards our goal – currently number two in funds raised and in number of donors out of all the campus initiatives! There is still an opportunity to get us to our goal. The next $5,000 in donations we receive will be matched by a generous anonymous donor! We can get this done.

Everyone who knows Quail Ridge knows the importance of Gators. For most of us, the Quail Ridge experience is synonymous with a Gator ride along the ridgetops or down into the canyons. A ride on a Gator is the kind of experience that leaves a lasting impression with young people who visit the Natural Reserves.

To celebrate the upcoming end of the campaign, we thought we would share some gator poetry written specially for us:

first is Shane Waddell's

Ode to a Quail Ridge gator ride

On my visit to the ridge called Quail

I took a ride in a Gator

I traveled far, from hill to dale

Of experiences, I know none greater

O’er roads of dirt and gravel

I explored different habitats

The Deere made surefooted travel

While I scanned for elusive wildcats

I visited a site whence cats did prowl

With Skox and funk upon perch

Like kittens playing, without a growl

Those cats walked away with the research

I looked upon swimming tadpoles

In ponds of spring green and muck

The newts twisted in mating rolls

And my gator didn’t get stuck

My head and hands stayed inside

As to avoid the poison oak

“No rash or itch” would be a lie

Leaves of three are no joke!

Hills of purple needled Nessella

The bunch grass of our state

It’s now Stipa, not Pulchra

Preserved here, a proper fate

Crawling through the chaparral

The rodents nest in sticks

Are their activities behavioral 

Or are they up to some other tricks? 

QuRiNet enables technology

Ones and zeros zoom about

While QRAAT is about biology

Discovering how critters act out

So many things to discover

I will have to come back later

For I am an adventure lover

Enabled by a trusty Gator

A generous person who wishes to remain anonymous has agreed to match all upcoming donations up to a $5000.00 cap. Your donation will be doubled. Please consider donating today and share far and wide.

The Oscars were yesterday and Valentine's day is this Friday. Our fundraising video may not be winning any awards but we have earned the love of all of our users. Hundreds of students and researchers have been able to do research related to the environment, adaptations of plants and animals to climate change, animal behaviors, landscape resilience, and human health because we have gators to help them traverse the 2500 acres of Quail Ridge Reserve.

So far we have raised over $2000.00 from 25 donors. Please share this link with your friends and family and help us reach our goal! Thank you for your support!