OWL – Assistance League – Hawaii

BYU-Hawaii Museum of Natural History Donates Biofacts to Assistance League of Hawaii

technology archive — Mon, 15 May 2023 20:02:40 +0000

Three Operation Wildlife (OWL) member volunteers, Betty Parinas, Linda Andersen, and Hazel Sumile took a road trip out to Brigham Young University-Hawaii Campus on the North Shore community of Laie to visit the BYU-Hawaii Museum of Natural History. They met with the museum’s curator, Dr. Phillip Bruner, and obtained a few “gifts” from the school, which is dismantling its museum and the collection this summer.

The ladies were fascinated by the displays of all the “real” animals (the huge polar bear, brown bear, moose, small animals, birds and more) that have been taxidermied by various people and students, as well as by the Dr. Bruner himself. Betty Parinas was surprised by how many of the animals she had known back in the old OWL Zoo days.

Assistance League of Hawaii was gifted with two turtles that are in great condition, as well as a boxful of furs, feet, and other “stuff”! We sincerely thanked Dr. Bruner and his staff for providing Assistance League of Hawaii with such an opportunity to see this fabulous collection as well as to be entrusted with some of its specimens.

The newly-donated specimens will join our collection of biofacts that are used as part of Assistance League of Hawaii’s Operation Wildlife program and shared with 4th grade students around Hawaii during each school year.

A big mahalo to BYU-Hawaii for their generosity in sharing their priceless collection with us.

Betty Parinas & Dr. Phil Bruner

Galapagos Tortoise

Student "stares down" turtle biofact.

Operation Wildlife Featured on Hawaii News Now

technology archive — Tue, 28 Mar 2023 08:29:46 +0000

With the presentation to 45 students at Ala Wai Elementary School on March 6, 2023, the Operation Wildlife (OWL) Team finished all the school sessions for this school year.

We shared our OWL presentation at 26 schools, including 6 in Hilo and 5 on Maui, with a total of 1,787 people, including students, teachers and administrators. Sixteen OWL volunteers went out to the schools, and we even had a few non-member volunteers observing at some schools. A couple of our volunteers played critical roles of Neighbor Island advisor and biofact triage specialist!

The best critique comes from teachers. Here are some from this year’s evaluations:

“The students had an amazing experience. A lot of them said that they never would have thought that they would be able to see or touch such beautiful animals in their young lives. One student said it was the best moment he ever had at a school. A lot of my students were inspired to do something and create change because of this presentation. Thank you for creating such a wonderful program for students”.

“Thank you for all that you do. A lot of my kids felt the importance of taking actions to help our native species. It is an experience they will never forget.”

“All of the provided teaching material, video presentation, and viewing of biofacts were above and beyond our expectations. The students loved it!”

The student with the sea turtle, in the photo above, said he had a staring contest with the turtle and lost! Comments like these make it all worthwhile!

We also made the news on Maui and had an interview with Jim Mendoza of Hawaii News Now, thanks to our Public Relations committee led by Linda McColgan.

Our Operation Wildlife team was on Maui this week

linda.mccolgan@hotmail.com — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 00:11:09 +0000

And…. Maui News came to one of the schools with them!

Click the link to read the article and view the pictures:.A walk on the wild side | News, Sports, Jobs – Maui News

Operation Wildlife coming to Maui soon!

linda.mccolgan@hotmail.com — Sat, 18 Feb 2023 00:49:22 +0000

Operation Wildlife is an educational program that travels to Neighbor Island and Oahu schools to teach fourth grade students about animal endangerment and preservation. (Hawaii has more endangered species than any other state.) Assistance League of Hawaii has collected over 100 exotic biofacts (tiger skin, elephant tooth, piranha, and much more) for students to touch, feel and examine.

Member volunteers travel to Maui, Hawaii, Kauai, Lanai, Molokai, carrying suitcases filled with biofacts and PowePpoint video equipment. They present a memorable endangered species program for students, of which many have not been to a zoo.

This traveling program enhances the fourth grade endangered species and Earth’s ecosystems in their science curriculum at schools on all major Hawaiian Islands. Students handle a fantastic array of animal skins, skulls, furs and feathers. They gain understanding for the need to care for and conserve natural resources.

Making A Difference 2021: Action Week OWL Video

technology archive — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 01:37:19 +0000

One of the first things we did in 2021 was to create an online presentation for Operation Wildlife. Under the auspices of 2020-2021 Assistance League of Hawaii Marketing Chair Gerri Migita, she assembled a talented team of members and community volunteers to come up with an all new video presentation which was presented for the first time, entirely online via our website and YouTube.

The revised slide presentation was ready for 2021’s Action Week for February. In an article appearing in the March membership newsletter, Gerri wrote:

“This year due to COVID-19 restrictions, Assistance League of Hawaii’s Marketing Team created and produced an educational slide show presentation for Action Week.

The slide show helped distance learning students as well as those doing face-to-face, in-class instruction to equally learn what they can do to help Hawaii’s environment. The presentation focused on sustaining Hawaii’s environment to save the endangered endemic animals and plants from going extinct.

Letters were sent to schools with agreements with Assistance League of Hawaii around the State inviting them to connect to our website for the slide presentation “Sustaining Hawaii’s Environment for Your Future”. We also selected a book, “What a Waste” to give to schools that participated and returned surveys to us. There are also supporting worksheets and evaluations for teachers to use in their classes.

The video was uploaded onto YouTube and embedded to a specially created Assistance League Hawaii webpage. It was made available for viewing starting February 15. It will be available for public viewing through the end of the school year.”

The video appears at the bottom of this post.

For 2022, the Operation Wildlife Committee is putting together a new slideshow which will be shared with students around Oahu.

OWL Duo Make Presentation in Waimea

technology archive — Thu, 11 Oct 2018 18:18:53 +0000

Assistance League of Hawaii Operation Wildlife (OWL) members were at the Thelma Parker Memorial Library in Waimea on the Big Island of Hawaii where they gave three presentations to students from Parker, Waimea County, Hawaii Preparatory Academy (HPA) and Waimea Elementary schools. Waimea was OWL’s first Neighbor Island trip which was from September 24 to the 27. Gerri Migita and Leilani Alcover made that trip.

Koko Head Elementary was visited on September 24 and Kapunahala Elementary in Kaneohe on September 26. More presentations are planned for this academic year. If you want to get involved in our OWL program, call us at 808 946-1505 or drop us an email at althrift281@gmail.com. You can also go to this link to join Assistance League of Hawaii.

OWL Prepares for New School Year

Fri, 07 Sep 2018 23:50:43 +0000

Operation Wildlife (OWL) members met on Wednesday September 5 to finalize plans for this academic year and to review the wonderful new Power Point presentation that will be shown to schools around the state. Member volunteers shown, left to right include: Betty Parinas, Kathy Takemoto, Marge Martin, Arden Moore, Andrea Cyriacks, Gerri Migita, Myrtle Ching-Rappa, Marge Fabre, Joy Corbett, and Shelley Carroll.