As some of you know, I’m a huge Ellen Degeneres fan. Not only are we both from the same city, but we are both avid animal lovers. It is literally one of my ultimate life goals to meet her one day and work with her on a project or two. Ellen has the reputation as being one of the kindest celebrities out there, and she does a ton of work with animal rescue all over the nation. Like mine, all of her pets are rescues, and you can tell from her social media posts that they are as much her family as her two-footed family (which is exactly as it should be).
Ellen’s latest project involves helping to save the Mountain Gorillas in Rwanda. Growing up, and still today, Dian Fossey was Ellen’s hero, and she’s always felt a connection with her and her work. Last year for her 60th birthday, Ellen’s wife, Portia, began the Ellen Degeneres Wildlife Fund that will work in conjunction with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund to create a permanent campus in Rwanda to research, protect and save the Mountain Gorilla species. Although the Dian Fossey Fund already has a camp set up there, it’s small and technology and resources are severely limited. Ellen’s campus would not only give the people of Rwanda the resources they need to further their research of the species, but it would also encourage tourism, thus bringing money into the country to further their efforts.
When I heard about this project, I knew I wanted to somehow be involved, but obviously I don’t have a lot of money to make a noticeable donation. BUT, I CAN paint, and I thought it would be really neat to do a painting of a gorilla, then give proceeds from the products I offer featuring that painting to the Ellen Degeneres Wildlife Fund. So, that’s exactly what I’m doing!
The painting above is available as a beach towel, pillow, trivet and fleece blanket (3 sizes) on my Etsy site. Again, the proceeds will be donated to the Ellen Degeneres Wildlife Fund to help save the Mountain Gorillas.
Please share this post with your friends and family, and if you don’t need one of my products (although you should totally buy one or two because they’re awesome) feel free to donate directly to the fund HERE.
I have some other exciting projects like this one in the pipeline, so stay tuned!