Agnostic Mom

Here is a newsletter (and donation request) I received from the president of the non-profit organization, Darwin Day Celebration:

Dear Noell Hyman,

First let me thank all of you for providing your names or e-mails as supporters of Darwin Day — the Celebration of Science and Humanity. If there is anything our nation currently needs, it is a better understanding of Science and a mutual appreciation of all Humanity.

I’m very pleased to be able to report that this year’s celebration on February 12, 2006, was a tremendous success, with more that 650 events being held around the world. Most of the Celebrations were held in English speaking countries, but in recent years there has been a growing participation in Darwin Day throughout the world. For instance, events were held in 13 different countries, including 26 events in Italy, where 15 of the major universities held celebrations. Other countries with Darwin Day celebrations include Canada, England, Ireland, Chile, Australia, Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Ecuador, Germany, Guatemala, India, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Together we made news this year receiving Darwin Day coverage in over 150 newspapers, E-news articles, and even on prime time TV news! In addition, our Website www.darwinday.org remains on-line year-around as a source of educational material about Charles Darwin’s life and the science of evolution.

Together we have created a very effective system for communicating the history and logic of Charles Darwin’s pioneering discoveries and the convincing scientific evidence for evolution. We have nearly 1500 people who have a strong interest in Darwin Day’s activities, and we have communicated with nearly 67,000 academic and medical people who have advanced understanding of the scientific process. We can e-mail to them at low cost to coordinate the public Celebrations on Darwin Day, when we who understand Science and respect Humanity share with the rest of the world the importance of evolution for interpretation of biomedical research.

Darwin’s bicentennial birthday will arrive on February 12, 2009, and we need your help. If you could make a donation of 25 to 50 dollars it would make it possible for us to expand our communication network to the entire world. For US taxpayers this donation can be tax deductible. Your support will enable our staff to develop the Web site so that by the fall of 2006 it will appear in at least 8 of the major world languages. Your support will enable us to create downloadable posters, songs, lesson plans, banners and slogans that can be used at any time to keep Darwin Day and science advancing. By going to http://darwinday.org/englishL/donate/index.html, you can make a donation conveniently through Pay Pal or by other means.

Please make a donation to this very worthy cause that we all support intellectually!

Yours sincerely,

Robert J. (”Bob”) Stephens, Ph. D.
Emeritus Director, Cell Biology Program
SRI International (formerly Stanford Research Institute)
President, Darwin Day Celebration, a nonprofit, tax-deductible 501(c)3 corp.
http://darwinday.org