About
About
Our Mission and Our Vision
Our mission is simple. Inspire kids to fall in love with wildlife using art and education. We believe the more you learn, the more you love, the more you protect.
Art has the remarkable ability to communicate the awesome beauty of wildlife and ecosystems in ways that words alone cannot capture. Whether it is a gifted student, one who doesn’t speak English, or a child with disabilities, they all benefit from art. Integrating art into our educational approach engages multiple senses, sparks creativity, and is just plain fun!
Our vision is to create a sense of wonder and appreciation for wildlife that can ignite a child’s lifelong passion for conservation. Our kids then become true champions for wildlife and habitat.
A little history…
Three wild red wolf pups at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. Photo: Nancy Arehart
So Dale, a wildlife sculptor, created a red wolf mom and pup sculpture from stone and had limited edition castings made. These castings were donated to 40 out of the 50 SAFE Red Wolf breeding facilities around the US that work to save Red Wolves.
At about the same time, we also taught a class of third graders about Red Wolves and saw the kids’ immediate reaction to learning about these animals. “How can we save them?” they asked. At that moment, we knew we had to teach the next generation to be champions for wildlife!
Plus kids are learning about the monarch migration, animal adaptations, and native plants. Our long-term goal is to have interactive art activities, coloring sheets and wildlife games on our Discovery Den for kids, teachers and parents to download. This will be a free resource on our website for anyone with Internet access.
Our Founders
Loti & Dale learned it is never too late, for anything, at a ripe old age. Meeting in their 60s, they fell in love at first sight. So then, what did they do? Well, they got engaged in 8 days and looked at each other and asked, now what?
Sharing a deep passion for wildlife, especially the underdogs and their habitat, they founded our nonprofit in 2022. Originally called Weiler Woods for Wildlife, we renamed it Champions for Wildlife to better fit our mission of inspiring kids to fall in love with wildlife using art & education.
Dale started sculpting in his late 40’s and never looked back. He’s an artist, a navy pilot, an international consultant and an aerospace engineer all rolled into one. Dale still sculpts and donates all sculpture proceeds to our nonprofit.
Loti, a retired Insurance Executive, brings her love of native plants and habitat restoration, along with her business skills to the nonprofit as our Executive Director.
Both Loti & Dale serve on the Board and volunteer their time to make our nonprofit a leader in wildlife education with our unique twist of art.
And check out our video produced by First Horizon which inspired us to start our nonprofit.
We Are Candid Certified!
P.O. Box 128
Lynn, North Carolina, 28750
Champions for Wildlife is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization.
EIN #87-4584220
NEWSLETTER SIGN-UP