This year Travels with Gannon & Wyatt truly embraced the holiday spirit, donating over 10,000 books to various children’s charities around the country!
Patti Wheeler and Keith Hemstreet visit elementary and middle schools across the country. Conducting research for this adventure series, Wheeler and Hemstreet have traveled to the far corners of the globe. During school visits, the authors tell captivating stories, discuss the writing process, read an excerpt from one of the books, show photos and video from around the world, and explain to students the importance of reading and writing.
This morning, I heard a troubling story on the radio. According to the story, rhinos around the world are being killed in record numbers.The story, though sad, did have a hopeful ending. Authorities are stepping up efforts to capture poachers. Recently they began using drones, small unmanned aircraft with infrared cameras, to identify poachers at night when they do most of their hunting. Once spotted, Rangers are given the poachers location so they can address the situation. Ultimately, officials believe the drone strategy will save the lives of many rhinos.
When we traveled to Africa to conduct research for Travels with Gannon & Wyatt Botswana, we came across lions everyday in the Okavango Delta — an old, distinguished male covered in scares from a lifetime of battles, a band of brothers lying around in the shade, a mother resting while and her cubs wrestled nearby, a solo male feasting on a cape buffalo.It was breathtaking to see these magnificent creatures in the wild. Literally, I couldn’t breathe the first time we encountered a pride of lions at close distance. Based on all the lions we came across in Botswana, I would have guessed the species was doing just fine. Truth is, lions are in trouble.