PAGE OF THANKS
We would like to use this page to thank everyone who has supported and raised money for the Fund. We are incredibly grateful of any support from people to organisations, without the support from them we would not be able to continue our work raising awareness about the plight of wild lions and raising funds for important lion conservation efforts. For more details of specific events, occasions or donations please look at our reviews listed on the 'About Us ' page.
2017 SUPPORTERS
Before the summer we were contacted by the Big Cat Team at Noah's Ark Zoo Farm who wanted to fundraise for lion conservation to celebrate World Lion Day. This was particularly special for us as their male lion Masai is the son of our namesake Safina. The team spent their spare time making key rings and bookmarks to sell and hosted several games for the general public to raise money for the Fund. A month later the team at Noah's Ark raised more money for us by hosting a carnivore & curry evening. We were also delighted to be approached by a team of seven colleagues from various teams at Knowsley Safari who were taking part in a sponsored tough mudder. They decided to raise money for us and set up Just Giving pages. Along with support from Knowsley Safari the team managed to raise close to £1700 allowing us to start our conservation work. We would also like to show our thanks and gratitude to Linton Zoo Conservation Park - As the home and birthplace of our namesake Safina we are always pleased to receive updates and news about the lions themselves. We would also like to thank Zoo Director Kim Simmons for her enthusiasm over the Fund we have set up. We were also pleased earlier this year to receive a collection of zoo guide and leaflets from the zoo which we will be giving away online in return for an adequate donation.
We are delighted to announce that we are proud to work with Wild Arena Ltd - Nature Imaging Experts. Wild Arena have very generously agreed to donate £1 towards our conservation work from every Big Cat Workshop they carry out. So if you are interested in photography and want to support our lion conservation, these workshops may be great for you. These Big Cat Workshops take place at Woburn Safari Park in Bedfordshire and Knowsley Safari in Merseyside. The half day sessions are a great opportunity to get some brilliant pictures of the lions and tigers at these parks, getting closer than the normal visitor. Wild Arena was founded in 2003 by a small group of experienced and expert image making professionals. The original concept was to provide a range of events to offer both facilitated opportunities for great pictures and a relaxed and rewarding learning environment for their guests.
We can highly recommend Wild Arena for these workshops and we look forward to our continued relationship with them. Thanks to the Wild Arena team for all their help and enthusiasm. For more information please look on their website - www.wildarena.com
2018 SUPPORTERS
In July we were picked by a small group of colleagues from Knowsley Estate, Hall and Safari to be their chosen charity on their first charity quiz night. The night was a huge success and not only were did we receive half of the funds as was originally promised we were given the other half by the winning team! Thanks to Mike, Ian, Tony, Cathy and Hope for their kindness and to Audrey, Faye, Ellie and Lyn for organising the event. Thanks also go to Kat for donating her winnings on 'Play your cards right' All together we received over £300 from the event. Thank you everyone who came and took part on the night and the raffle. We were also contacted by Helen Richardson another colleague from nowsley Safari who was intending to run the Liverpool Half Marathon in March and would love to raise money for chairty. Thanks to Helen who raised £60 for our conservation work via Just Giving. We were delighted when we were approached earlier this year by Folly Farm Lion Keeper Rosie Badger. Rosie had signed up for Ironman Wales and was trying to find a cause to raise money for. We were humbled when Rosie decided to choose us and she set up a Just Giving campaign. After a very lengthy training process Rosie completed her Ironman on the 9th September and finished just before midnight. All together Rosie managed to raise £1600 and over £300 via Gift Aid through Just Giving. We would like to express our thanks to Rosie for raising such a phenomenal amount of money for us which we allow us to support more projects in Africa. Two trustees and three supporters also took part in a sponsored climb of Mount Snowdon to raise money for our conservation work. Together via Just Giving over £500 was raised. Thanks to Helen, Andy who took part and to Sarah who took part and led the climb.
10th August is always one of our busiest times and 2018 saw many zoos come to help our cause. Rosie Badger and her team of colleagues at Folly Farm Adventure Park & Zoo were busy organising lion related events to raise money and spread awareness for lion conservation efforts. All together they raised £1000 which will go towards our conservation work, thank you very much to Zoo Curator Tim Morphew and his team. Noah's Ark Zoo Farm held similar events to the years before and were joined by two of our trustees to raise awareness and funds for conservation work. It was their biggest event so far with an African carnival full of dancers and animal costumes which gave us a brilliant opportunity to talk to people who came to see it. Thank you to the Noah's team again for hosting us. Linton Zoo also hosted our chairman to give a talk on lion conservation and our shared support of Lion Guardians. Three talks were given and awareness leaflets handed out to the public who attended. We were also assisted by other zoos who although didn't support us financially but found homes for our educational leaflets in their visitor and educational centres. Thanks also to New Forest Wildlife Park, Battersea Park Children's Zoo and Shepreth Wildlife Park. Knowsley Safari also hosted our chairman for a talk on lion conservation attended by staff and visitors. Thank you again to Knowsley who donated a percentage of the profits to our conservation work. We also gave talks to the Liverpool John Moore's University Zoological Society and to the Rainford Young Farmers society for attended the talks and for both donating towards our conservation work.
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2019 SUPPORTERS
2018 was always going to be hard to beat with the amazing support of all of our friends and colleagues. This year we have added more zoos to our Learn About Lions campaign who also shared our educational leaflets with their visitors. Thanks to Combe Martin Wildlife & Dinasaur Park for sharing our leaflets at their Wolrd Lion Day talk and to Wolds Wildlife Park for sharing our leaflets at a talk on their August open days as well as our regular supporters who have continued to share our leaflets over the holidays - Thank you. We have also welcomed a new zoo supporter, Dartmoor Zoological Park have been home to a male lion Jasiri for a number of years who is actually a younger brother of our name-sake Safina, when senior keeper Simon heard of this he was very keen to start up a partnership with us. On World Lion Day they raised £445.93 just through activities run by keepers and we were invited to give a talk on our conservation work to staff, volunteers and visitors of the park in October. We also recieved support from Noah's Ark Zoo Farm who donated £394.83 from their years fundraising and we returned to Linton Zoo on the 6th August to give a talk on lion conservation and our support of Lion Guardians, Linton Zoo also support the organisation as well so we were pleased to be invited back to share awareness of this great cause. We also became an official conservation partner of Folly Farm Adventure Park & Zoo. Through this scheme they donate a certain percentage of all profits their animal adoptions which are split between the partners - This year they donated £466.85 to go towards our conservation work.
2020 SUPPORTERS
2020 has been a hard year for everyone. With the fall out of the Coronavirus lockdown many zoos have been unable to carry out fundraising events as they normally would due to social distancing measures and due to applying for the government zoo grant. Despite this we have had some support from zoos in Wales where this hasn't applied and our normal zoo supporters through social media. Noah's Ark Zoo Farm carried out a full day of lion conservation and husbandry related posts on their Facebook and other social media platforms so we thank them for adding to our education efforts. Our new friends at conservation charity Apex Extreme worked to host a day of special events for World Lion Day at Borth Wild Animal Kingdom. Together they raised over £260 by exchanging memberships and merchandise for donations. We are hoping to work closely with Apex Extreme in the future and thank them and the zoo for the efforts made to make the event safe for all. On the 25th June two trustees and three keepers from the Cotswold Wildlife Park walked 23 miles in a day to raise awareness and funds for the 23 thousand lions left in the wild. £461 was raised online through Just Giving. Thanks to everyone involved and for the support of the Wildlife Park allowing us to walk on the site. Despite the hardships faced by the pandemic we were delighted to receive a donation of £1283.42 from our friends at Folly Farm Adventure Park & Zoo. This money came from the 10% of their profits from adoption sales which they donate to their conservation partners. This donation brings Folly Farms total donations to us to over £2700! We also want to thank the dedicated staff and volunteers at Dartmoor Zoo, as the zoo was unable to donate to us as they have done before they decided to organise a collection between themselves and donated £200 via Just Giving.
2021 SUPPORTERS
2021 has presented us with some rather different opportunities to spread awareness and raise funds. Firstly we would like to thank our friends at Wild Arena Ltd for hosting a ZOOM talk in February presented by our chairman James. In total £79 was donated from the ticket sales. We would also like to thank the Bristol University Veterinary and Zoological Society for listening to a ZOOM talk giving details on our work. Last year we were approached by brand new clothing brand Wild In Time who are keen to work with conservation charities, they have donated £24 throughout 2021. We also want to thank Folly Farm Adventure Park & Zoo for their donation of £1392.12 at the end of the year from the profits of their adoption sales. Taking their total donations over £4,000 now! We also want to thank Craig Lancaster who ran the Bedford half marathon in September and chose us as his sponsored charity. Craig has worked with the lions at Woburn Safari Park for many years, one of his favourites Tamby is pictured on his T-shirt. A nice connection for us, Tamby was the grandmother of our namesake Safina. All together Craig raised £226.11 from his run. We would also like to say thank you to lion enthusiast Stacey Welsh who organised a birthday fundraiser via Facebook and raised £100, thank you Stacey!
In September one of our trustees along with trustees and volunteers from Apex Extreme took part in a 23km sponsored walk and litter pick on the 5th September. We chose 23km to represent the estimated 23,000 lions left in the wild. Whilst we are raising awareness for lion conservation we will also be picking up litter as part of Apex Extreme’s ‘Take out the trash’ campaign as they work to protect predators and their habitats all over the globe, even small predators in the UK! This collaboration marks another way both of us are working together to see through their aims and objectives to conserve and protect predators. Jess, a young girl with a passion for animals who is a volunteer and friend of the Apex Extreme team took part in the walk and organised lots of other fund raising activities online too. The walk was a great success and over £1700 has been raised collaboratively with £1622 coming from Jess. Jess' Go Fund Me page is still running and she is still organising stalls and other fundraising events to raise money, thank you Jess!! Click here to find Jess' fundraising page.
2022 SUPPORTERS
2022 has got off to a brilliant start with volunteer Jess and David from Apex Extreme still continuing their fundraising with a regular stall at the Little Owl Farm Park. Nottingham University Veterinary Zoological Society got in touch and organised an online talk with their members. A team of carnivore keepers from Knowsley Safari organised a fundraiser for the three peaks challenge where they tried to climb Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon in 24 hours. They managed to climb all three mountains but sadly due to traffic issues it wasn't quite in 24 hours. The team did an absolutely incredible job to undertake such a tough task! Pictures can be seen below. If you want to donate towards their fundraiser please click here. Thank you Sarah, Charlotte, Chris, Matt and Sam! We are also very grateful to Poppy Groombridge and other students and staff from Moreton Morrell College for raising £525 by organising a sponsored run and walk on the 8th June. A picture is included below, thank you to everyone involved!
We would also like to say our thanks to Sean Robinson, long term regular visitor to Linton Zoo and their resident lions including our namesake, Safina who is a special favourite of his, who has donated £100 towards our charity. We would also like to thank our friends at Linton Zoo for handing out our Learn About Lions leaflets around World Lion Day to their visitors. Trustees also visited Folly Farm Adventure Park & Zoo to present an award for their outstanding support over the last five years to celebrate our fifth anniversary, picture can be seen to the right. We would like to thank them once again for their annual donation from the profits from their adoption sales, this time £849.31.
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2023 SUPPORTERS
After a brilliant year last year taking our income back up to pre-Covid levels 2023 took a slow start but has seen much more activity around World Lion Day now events and fundraisers are completely back to normal. We would like to start with thanking everyone who joined trustee Pete during Coronation celebrations helping him to raise money for our Boma Strengthening Scheme with his hot sauce challenge! All together £110 was raised. We would also like to give a huge thank you to the Cotswold Wildlife Park who organised a sponsored walk to raise money for the Boma Strengthening Scheme. This walk was created in partnership with the park and named the 'Ilchokuti Challenge' and is a 12.5km walk to replicate that of the daily distance covered by the Ilchokuti (local word for 'Guardian') team employed by our conservation partner KopeLion, £720 has been raised from the event, thank you to everyone who has donated and who took part and made it such a brilliant success! Thanks also to Linton Zoo hosting us for a talk on the week of World Lion Day, this gave our trustee James the opportunity to talk to zoo visitors about lion conservation whilst in the company of our namesake Safina and her family herself.
We would also like to thank Cotswold Wildlife Park for their donation of £269.07 from their lion weekend event to celebrate World Lion Day and the opening of their new lion house. As one of three conservation organisations supported by the park, our information is now on a new conservation education sign on the new house for which we helped to provide information for. Extra thank you to Education & Conservation officer Beth who has helped us hugely in making promotional material for the 'Ilchokuti Challenge' and the fundraising events undertaken by the Cotswold Wildlife Park. Folly Farm Adventure Park & Zoo also put on another event to celebrate World Lion Day that we were invited to attend. It was a great success thanks to Conservation Officer Jack. All together £325.20 was raised for the Boma Strengthening Scheme. Thank you to all the keepers who helped out on the day!
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We are delighted to have been approached by artist Charlotte Sutton who would like to donate a percentage of her profits from the selling of her wonderful painting 'Fahari'. The painting along with many others will be on display at her exhibition in London on the 4th-9th September. For all of the details please see below. Thank you Charlotte for your interest and we highly recommend anyone who can to go and view her brilliant artwork. Please share and spread the word.
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"London-based artist Charlotte Sutton, creates stunning acrylic and watercolour paintings that beautifully depict animals and ecosystems with astonishing detail. In her upcoming solo exhibition titled 'Coexist' at Green & Stone of Chelsea, Charlotte extends a personal invitation, welcoming the animal kingdom into our human habitat, fostering a harmonious sanctuary where we can happily co-exist with each other. Please join her as she showcases her collection of artworks from 4th-9th September where she will donate 10% of each sale to a charity of the depicted animal."
For more information please look on her website: www.charlottesutton.com
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We would also like to thank Folly Farm Adventure Park & Zoo for their annual donation from the profits of their adoption sales. This year the donation came to £736.85
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