The light coming from the 3rd floor of the volunteer center of Kids Saving the Rainforest cuts a hard line in the dark. My eyes focus, and the tangle of trees beyond me begins to clarify into pale leaves, their color washed out by the night. Here I am in the jungle, the new Volunteer Coordinator for this extraordinary non-profit organization that rescues, rehabs, and either releases or offers sanctuary to over 200 wild Costa Rican animals a year. I feel the weight and the joy of my new life like something taking root inside me. Whatever grows of it will surely be green.
The rainforest around me seems to have taken hold of this building I have made my home in. This is more apparent on the 3rd floor, up here among the trees. A mural of a three-toed sloth reaches with his claws into a sky I cannot see, but two scarlet macaws have still managed to fly through it. Squirrel monkeys, three of them, seem ready to leap off of their painted tree. A strangler fig has swallowed the front side of the building. Delicate light purple flowers bloom in such profusion that they litter the sidewalk in front of the volunteer center. The vines reach into the stairwell and we patiently push them back, a luxury the palm tree is not granted in life.
Inside, my daughter, Karma, the new resident spokes-kid for Kids Saving the Rainforest, is fast asleep in Bunk #2 of a row of beds temporarily emptied of the millennial volunteers and interns that usually lay their heads on these pillows. She is snuggled up with two stuffed sloths named Patience and Paquita, a tiny queen of an abandoned summer camp in the jungle. Her dreams drift here, high above the ground, tendrils of vines spiraling upward to a sky that, for the moment, has been swallowed by the clouds hanging over the rainy season here on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica.
Karma and I have done what seemed impossible. A life among wild things is ours. These words, how small. Bare, plain facts that can but hint and grasp at all this means to us. Karma’s destiny hums somewhere deep in the ground here. It rustles in the leaves. It was calling out to us and it has brought us here.
Karma is 9 years old, the exact same age Janine Licare and Aislin Livingstone were when they founded Kids Saving the Rainforest. Like those two visionary young girls, Karma dreams of a world where the rainforests plunge green and uninterrupted to pristine beaches and a vast, pure ocean beyond it. She sees a future where animals should be wild and free. What’s more, she feels called to save them.
Every story starts somewhere. This one happened like this:
It all began in 1999 when two 9-year old girls living in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica decided to save the rainforest. They began painting rocks and selling them on the side of the main road that led to the National Park. Their store moved inside The Mono Azul, or the Blue Monkey, a hotel owned by Janine’s mother, Jennifer Rice, and the now president of Kids Saving the Rainforest. With the money they raised, they bought trees and started planting them; two girls saving the rainforest one tree at a time.
Today, Kids Saving the Rainforest is more focused on animals, and keeping them wild and free, if we can. That all started with Little Buddy. Let me tell you a story:
One day, Janine and Aislin were playing in the yard of the Mono Azul. The girls found something tangled in a barbed wire fence. With the help of Jennifer and Janine’s step-dad Chip, the girls freed Little Buddy from the barbed wire fence. That was the first animal KSTR ever rescued, rehabilitated, and eventually released.
KSTR has grown up to include a Wildlife Sanctuary, a Rescue and Rehabilitation Center, a Veterinary Clinic, and a Nursery, along with carrying out a number of other important conservation projects such as reforestation and working with the local electric company to install and maintain our simple but successful Monkey Bridges. To accomplish all of this extraordinary work, there is a 3-story volunteer center where a dedicated team of staff, volunteers, and interns from around the world come together to save the rainforest.
The goal for every single animal that comes in is its eventual release. This goal is achieved through the fuel of hope, and the hard work of the staff and volunteers of Kids Saving the Rainforest. I have worked side by side with them here in the jungle, and can tell you they are doing amazing work and there are many animals who are wild and free because of them.
My daughter, Karma found this place on her own while researching sloths, a young girl tending her big dreams for the future. Inspired by Janine’s story, she reached out into the world in search of those dreams, and she and I have planted our lives here in the fertile jungle ground just outside of Quepos, Costa Rica to help them grow. We have given ourselves over to the cause of this amazing organization, but you don’t have to do that to help. As those two nine-year old girls have already proven, anyone can make a difference, if they try.
Help us out!
If you’d like come to Kids Saving the Rainforest to help, check out our short and long-term volunteer and intern opportunities, and daily tours of our wildlife sanctuary. We also have a day volunteer program, and can accommodate large groups. We even have a lovely Inn on site if you’d like to stay on property for a unique vacation experience. We are located on the beautiful Central Pacific coast of Costa Rica, a quick drive to world famous Manuel Antonio National Park. If you live locally, you can help us collect leaves for our hungry sloths and anteaters.
Can’t make it to Costa Rica? You can still help us in our work keeping animals wild and free from right where you are! Donate here! All proceeds from our fundraising efforts go directly to keeping this extraordinary place running, and giving the animals the care they so desperately need from us. From massive fruit and vegetable orders to medical supplies, the costs for running our operation are quite high, so any help that you can provide to us goes a very long way! Even kids can get a piggy bank or a jar and start saving for us!
Or sponsor one of the animals here at Kids Saving the Rainforest! We will send you the real story of that animal and how your money is going to directly saving it and other wildlife just like it. You can build a monkey bridge. You can plant a tree. Or just tell someone about us. Click here to check out our facebook page! You can share us on social media and help spread the word about the important work we are doing here! Help us save the rainforest, however you can.
Donate today!
For further information about volunteer opportunities, internships, our sponsorship program, donations, or school fundraisers/educational outreach, contact Kerri at volunteer@kstr.org.
Kerri Conrad is the Volunteer Coordinator for Kids Saving the Rainforest. She can be reached at volunteer@kstr.org
Kids Saving the rainforest 