I will be forever grateful to Tom Newmark for enabling me to experience the Children’s Eternal Rain Forest in Costa Rica. The trip there, which I recently took along with eight friends and business associates, was one filled with the hope and joy that are generated by a celebration of nature and the human spirit.
First were the great insights and reason to be joyous. Some 53,000 hectares of this rain forest are patched-together areas that were cut down and have now been reforested, providing a habitat for native animals and plants as well as helping filter the carbon dioxide in our atmosphere that is producing global warming. That replanting was all made possible through donations from children in some 44 countries, an effort inspired by one 12-year-old Swedish boy who, after learning about the vanishing rain forest back in the late 1980s and wanting to do something to save it, organized his classmates to hold a bake sale that enabled them to buy four hectares (10 acres) in Costa Rica’s Monteverde Reserve. From that came the initiative for The Children’s Rain Forest, a nonprofit organization that began in Sweden and was soon attracting donors from throughout the world.
The second source of inspiration were the incredible people of the Monteverde Conservation League -- Carlos, Rachel, Julia and Jorge, as well as Frank and Katie who hosted us to a wonderful dinner our first night. But the one I found most inspiring – and from whom I learned a valuable life lesson – was a humble soul named Elario, whom we encountered cutting vegetables and making beans and rice for us when we arrived at the halfway point and place to spend the night after our first day of hiking.
What I didn’t really know until later is that this man was the first to give up his farm for reforestation, and that we were sleeping in what had 20 years ago been his farmhouse. I also found out that Elario is considered to be one of the most knowledgeable inhabitants of the rain forest in regard to its various exotic plants and insects and their scientific classifications. In fact, he always hikes with a net in order to obtain new specimens to examine. But without the vision and generosity of this incredible individual, along with the children’s support, this incredible regenerated plant and animal habitat would probably never have existed.
Third, I must thank my colleagues for having inspired and encouraged all of us to keep up the pace in a trek that proved far more arduous than I ever anticipated. This was a difficult hike even for people who make a habit of keeping themselves physically fit. But for those of us who don’t get out in the wilderness much and are probably are not in the greatest shape to begin with, this trek challenged every muscle and bone in our bodies. After the first day, as almost all of us were lying awake wrapped in our mosquito nets, I knew we where all thinking about how we ached and what we were in for the next day. We all knew we had the challenge ahead of us. I will never forget completing that hike myself and the sense of accomplishment I felt, but more important was noticing how everyone that came in that night, after all the trials and tribulations of the day, had a big smile --the kind of smile that comes from making a new discovery by pushing yourself beyond your limits. A smile like the ones on the faces of those12-year-old children reforesting their first 10 acres. What a wonderful and invigorating experience!
In summary: A humble man has the vision to give up his farm for reforestation. Children throughout Europe contribute to the effort and finally, eight middle-aged men find themselves reborn and smiling after finishing the hike and enjoying its exquisite and exotic beauty, just like those children that helped save this rain forest. Wow! It really doesn’t get any better than this.
-- Anthony
