Meet our newest Adopt-a-Spirit Bear champion: Bud Norquist and the bear named in his honour, “Bud”.

(Watch Simon Jackson’s video tribute to Bud Norquist.)

Bud and his wife, LaVey, have long been friends of the spirit bear. Their images and videos of the Kermode have captured the imagination of all who have seen them and their support over the years has helped us spread the word about a bear we all share a passion to protect.

This Father’s Day, Bud’s son and daughter – Wendy and Jeff – decided to symbolically Adopt-a-Spirit Bear in Bud’s honour. This selfless act and indeed all the Norquist family has done for the spirit bear over the years makes them all heroes in our eyes.

In fact, the Youth Coalition would like to take a moment to salute Bud for shaping a legacy to this world through his time and passion that has unquestionably improved our world for all life and most especially for our spirit bear.

Thanks to the remarkable support of Bud – along with his wife, son and daughter – we’ve been better enabled to advocate for creating British Columbia’s first wildlife sanctuary, one that protects all bears on the BC coast from trophy hunting and, in the doing, helps safeguard the gene pool of the unique, endangered Kermode subspecies.

By taking a leadership role in this issue, Bud has not only strengthened the voice of “his” bear, but also the voice of every remaining spirit bear.

Equally, the funds raised by this adoption will immeasurably aid our volunteer-run efforts to speak to thousands of citizens, mobilize all stakeholders, facilitate debate on the issue across Canada and articulate our solution-based approach to saving the spirit bear with every decision maker at all levels.

We celebrate Bud – and his family – today and encourage you to join them in our Adopt-a-Spirit Bear Honour Roll.

With your added help, we hope to adopt each of the 400 white Kermode bears and create a united voice that will ensure a place on our planet for this remarkable creature.

Every voice counts. Every voice matters. And with every added voice, we are one step closer to saving the spirit bear.

On behalf of all of us at the Spirit Bear Youth Coalition, thank you Bud (and happy Father’s Day) for this this act of leadership and generosity – and for a lifetime’s worth of leadership and generosity on behalf of this bear and all wild spaces. The spirit bear’s future is much brighter because of you.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 15th, 2012 at 9:20 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.