Eileen Caputo teaches 4th graders in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. Her class worked with the organization Reach the World, which connects classrooms to travelers around the world who are doing special work. They were matched with snow leopard researcher and SLC Associate Charlotte Hacker who was studying snow leopards in China. Through meetings held via the internet and articles she wrote to the class, they developed an interest in and desire to help snow leopards.

Caputo and her class reached out to the Conservancy and Outreach Manager Shavaun Kidd. They’d launched a campaign to raise money to symbolically adopt a snow leopard in the wild. As part of their efforts, they wrote persuasive letters to their principal and created drawings that demonstrated what they’d learned about snow leopards from the Conservancy’s website and their conversations with Hacker. 

Three primary readers were developed and distributed for free as reading materials for school children in the highland communities of the snow leopard range areas in Bhutan. Developed in partnership with the Royal Educational Council, The Bhutan Foundation aims to raise awareness on the importance of the snow leopard and its conservation in the region. The stories and illustrations were created by Bhutanese teachers and artists.