Two months ago, after reading a small article in our local newsletter from Jaguar World Monthly magazine about the endangered habitat for the endangered Jaguar, I decided to issue a challenge to our club members to come up with some
money to help buy some land in Belize. While I was at it, I thought maybe the challenge should be broadened to include other JCNA affiliate clubs, since we're all in the same boat, so to speak - endangered cat-wise. So I wrote a small article for the Cat Fancier and since our newsletter goes to all the other
clubs, I asked the various editors to pick up on the challenge. Later I thought that maybe the editors had bigger fish (for them) to fry and that I would enlist Mike Cook at Jaguar Journal in the cause and get him to run my challenge in said magazine. He wrote back that he thought that a grand idea and suggested I send a copy of the challenge to JCNA officers and see if we couldn't get national on the bandwagon and urging the clubs to follow JOCO's lead.

That's what this e-mail is all about. I hope you see merit in the challenge and will encourage your club and all the JCNA clubs to step up and heed the call.

The following is the sum and substance of my article and the challenge:

HERE'S THE DEAL!

Last month you read the article on page 7 about the threat to our car's namesake in Belize. Although, try as they might, the Jaguar's habitat is being destroyed by encroachment of farmland. This is not good for the Jaguar and is definitely not good for the essentially subsistent farmers, their families or their livestock.

Jaguar has taken the lead in helping to minimize this problem by setting up a fund to purchase land that abuts the preserve, and, now comes my challenge to you. The Jaguars Owners Club of Oregon has a has a provision in its bylaws which states that one of the purposes of the club is to "provide funds to worthy causes". In my mind there is no more worthy cause than this, to preserve a worthwhile species and keep it from extinction because it doesn't fair well in captivity. The provision in the bylaws states that the club will match funds up to $250 per person per year and/or up to $2500 total contribution per year. This provision was enacted in 1999, and to my knowledge no one has yet taken advantage of it. The provision is only for automotive-related charities and this one fits the bill.

Jan and I are donating $100 toward the purchase of the abutting farm acreage and according to my calculations, that means just over 5 acres can be added to the preserve. Rick Martin (your editor) has indicated that he is going to make a similar donation. How about the rest of you? Lets pool our sums together and make a major contribution to this cause.

My challenge to you is to see how much money we can raise until Labor Day Weekend (ABFM weekend). I know that you don't want to have a check sitting out there all that time, it'll foul up the bookkeeping. So here's what I suggest: Send me your pledge amount in a letter or email, then right after Labor Day send the checks to "the Club house at Consolidated Auto Works we'll have the club treasurer write a check matching the money we've collected and then we'll send it all to The World Land Trust, ear-marking it for the Jaguar Preserve in Belize.

Other Jaguar car clubs read our newsletter, so I challenge all of them, as well, to match us in our drive to help save the Jaguar and its environment from extinction.

My suggestion is for each club to set up a place to receive their donations/pledges or send the money directly to the trust, but send the final totals to me, so we can see how each participating club has fared against the others. I will publish the results in the December Cat Fancier and send them on to the website.

The trust address is: World Land Trust, Blyth House, Bridge Street, Halesworth, Suffolk IP19 8AB, England or telephone 01986 874422.