Operation Wildlife helps spread awareness of endangered animals to keiki
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - You can teach children about endangered animals using textbooks and slideshows, but a Hawaii nonprofit has a more hands-on approach that encourages keiki to handle artifacts that came from endangered species.
“Oh! You should see their eyes! Ohhh! They are just in awe,” Hazile Sumile said.
She oversees Operation Wildlife, one of five philanthropic programs offered by Assistance League of Hawaii. The traveling presentation goes to schools statewide to teach kids about endangered animals and how people can protect them.
“We try to get that message across to the children that you can make a difference,” she said.
The difference maker is a show-and-tell section that grabs a child’s attention by letting them touch skulls and skins and other animal parts.
“This is the claw of a grizzly bear,” Sumile said, holding up a giant paw. “The kids like to look at this one and go, ‘Oh, my goodness! Look at the difference between their claws and my fingernails.’”
The presentation is tailored for fourth-graders and encourages them to do what they can to spread awareness of endangered animals. So far this year, Operation Wildlife has visited more than 25 schools.
“We check the standards to make sure what we are doing is addressing the standards that the teachers have to address, so that it’s not something way on the outside for the teachers to invite us to come to their school,” Sumile said.
The program was started more than 30 years ago by docents at the Honolulu Zoo. Over the years, it has amassed a sizable collection of donated animal artifacts.
“We have tons of skulls. We have a beaver skull and a beaver pelt. We have a leopard skin. The kids cannot believe that these were all real animals,” Sumile said.
Assistance League of Hawaii funds its programs through sales from the nonprofit’s thrift shop, and funding from grants and awards that enable it to assist families and children across the islands.
“We do a lot of really good stuff,” she said.
Assistance League of Hawaii takes care of all the expenses for sending the program to any school that wants an Operation Wildlife presentation, and scheduling is underway for the next school year.
“As long as the school want us to come, we will go,” Sumile said.
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