Last week I contacted the Tucson Wildlife Center; http://tucsonwildlife.com/. I have this idea to walk my September-October 2013 Camino as a fund-raiser for the Center.
My dilemma is I do not know how to go about advertising and asking for donations. I spoke with the Development Director, Sheila, and told her my plan. She was unaware of the Camino de Santiago and seemed very interested after I explained the pilgrimage to her. She said they would advertise in their newsletter and on their webpage. She is going to discuss my proposal with the founder of the Wildlife Center and will get back to me soon. Sheila will be attending the next Old Pueblo Chapter meeting on July 21st to gather a better insight of the Camino.
For those of my readers who are not familiar with the Wildlife Center, they are a non-profit organization dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation and release of injured and orphaned wild animals throughout southern Arizona. They are one of the only centers in the area that can handle the more sizeable native and federally protected animals.
I will be very proud to walk for donations to such a wonderful organization. I have mentioned my idea to several of my friends, and they have already committed to donate a specific dollar amount to the Center for each mile I complete by walking while on the Camino. Once I have the official agreement from the Center, I will distribute flyers to people in my neighborhood asking for their support.
I hope this logo is available as a patch. I would like to have it sewn onto my backpack before September.
Thoughts and Adventures 
Hi Arlene, I just found your blog URL when I discovered the Albergue guide that you and David created. Great resource, thanks! I’m heading off on the Camino (Frances) in mid-September myself.. perhaps our paths will cross 😉 It’s a wonderful idea, to raise money for the Wildlife Center. You might want to consider setting up a fundraising campaign on a crowdsourcing site such as Indiegogo. My campaign just wrapped up and I raised funds for my walk and to raise awareness about invisible illnesses and impairments: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/healing-pilgrim-s-camino-project
Good luck! Amit
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Hi Amit, Thanks for complimenting the Albergue listing – David and I keep it up to date, so if you notice anything that needs to be added or corrected, please forward your comments to me.
The Wildlife Center is setting the fund raiser up on their website, I’m told it should go live shortly. I will make a blog post when it does.
It will be nice if we meet each other on Camino, I’ll keep a lookout for you.
Buen Camino y Ultreia,
Arlene
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