For Immediate Release: June 28, 2005

Direct merchant Lands’ End recently delivered good news to “born heroes” Gabriel Kroch and Isabel Diaz-Barriga. Gabriel and Isabel, both nine-year-old fourth graders at Swarthmore Rutledge School, started the Manatee Rescue Campaign in 2003 to raise awareness of the plight of the endangered manatee.

Isa and Gabe’s fundraising and education efforts received a boost from Lands’ End when they were chosen to be Born Heroes for 2005. The Lands’ End Born Heroes program recognizes children between ages six and twelve who are actively working to improve their communities and the world. Lands’ End will make a $5,000 donation to the Save the Manatee Club, and featured Isabel and Gabriel in their summer Lands End Kids catalog, which was mailed to homes in early May.

Says Isabel, “I was really excited to hear about the award. We’re only two kids doing school projects, but I realize now what a big difference we can make in the world.” Isabel hopes to be a writer or an architect. She adds, “It’s fun teaching about manatees. I would feel sad if they died out without my doing something to help them.”

Gabriel said, “One of our goals was to raise awareness about manatees. SRS is only 500 students, but the Lands’ End catalog will go to over 2 million homes. I hope that many more people learn about manatees and help to save them.” Gabriel plans to be a marine biologist and veterinarian with the hope of saving the manatee from extinction.

From the time they were playmates in preschool, Isabel and Gabriel have been passionate about helping animals, particularly the Florida manatee. Gabriel first fell in love with manatees before he was two. He was visiting his grandparents in Florida when he first saw one of these massive, planting-eating water creatures at SeaWorld and was given a stuffed manatee. Later he shared his discovery with Isabel, who adopted a manatee for Gabriel as well as one for herself through the Save the Manatee Club.

Gabriel and Isabel’s interest grew into a passion to help this gentle giant, an endangered species of which only 3,000 remain in the wild. Threats to the manatee’s survival include loss of habitat due to pollution and overdevelopment, watercraft collisions, litter (such as fishing line or plastic bags), harassment, and flood gate or canal lock structures. Together, as second graders, Isa and Gabe organized the first Manatee Rescue Campaign at their elementary school. They had two goals: to raise the amount needed to adopt one manatee ($25), and to raise awareness about the plight of this mammal so that others would help save it from extinction. These goals are modest considering Isa and Gabe’s success. They have run their project for each of the past three years and so far have raised more than $465, enough to adopt 18 manatees through the Save the Manatee Club.

Each afternoon of the campaign, on the school’s public address system, Isa and Gabe, along with third grader Maggie Hurlbut, present one fact about the manatee. In addition, they have created posters displaying more information about the manatee and threats to its survival. Also, Isabel directed and Gabriel appeared in an eight minute video about manatees that was shown to SRS students.To measure learning gains, each year of the campaign, their fellow students complete a questionnaire before and after the project. Results have shown that learning gains have been made by all grades.

Gabe and Isa’s project has grown tremendously, and twenty-two other SRS students are now involved, creating posters, presenting information, and helping to raise awareness about the manatee’s plight: Charlotte Brake, Kirsten Connell, Mitch Cross, Mike Dougherty, Patrick Fallon, Jamie Funk, Angelina Godderz, Julianna Harris, Maggie Hurlbut, Kortney Kline, Rachel Kroch, Alex Maillet, Michael McConnell, Mary Grace Murray, Maggie Newsham, Phoebe Richardson, Sahar Siddiqui, Saman Siddiqui, Shay Sovae-Beattie, Maddy Tannert-Schmidt, Nate Urban, and Jackie Yates. SRS students have even started a manatee club. In addition to Isa’s parents, Ann and Miguel Diaz-Barriga, and Gabe’s, Jean Fleschute and Eugene Kroch, Principal Gary Davis, Secretary Anne Marie Damiano, and several teachers including Randie Gallagher, Ed Gaynor, Brad Hosbach, and Helen Mangelsdorf, are supporting the students’ efforts.

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