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Publicize Your Project

If you or your group are working for wildlife, for goodness sake, tell everybody! The more people who know about your efforts, the better. Besides inspiring others to follow suit, you’ll be educating many citizens about the significance of habitat conservation for wildlife and humanity.

If you live in a small town, your local newspaper may be very interested in doing a story on your project. Daily newspapers in larger centres may be less interested, but they’re still worth trying. Most dailies have human interest or local neighbourhood sections as well as personal comment or environmental columns, where your story might be appropriate.

In larger centres, there are often several small volunteer-run tabloids covering different areas of the city. These newspapers are perfect for bringing attention to your story.

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Contact a Cable TV Station

Mny communities have their own cable TV stations. These stations are always interested in neighbourhood news, and your project could be just the thing. For example, an environmental club in Vernon, B.C., used cable to broadcast a message about the proper disposal of hazardous wastes.

Once you’ve completed the planning stages of your project, present your ideas and aims to a cable representative. Ask how the station could publicize your activities. But don’t wait till the day before you start your project — TV stations have to plan too!

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Write a Newsletter or Newspaper Article

You could also publicize your project through a newsletter or environmental column in a newspaper. Both are good ways to keep your community up to date on conservation efforts.

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Start a Wildlife Bulletin Board

Waiting in a line-up can be pretty boring. But you can make it more interesting — and help wildlife at the same time. Find a place, such as a bank, ministry of transport office, or post office, where people often wait in line. Approach the manager and ask for permission to put up a wildlife bulletin board. Offer to fill it with different items (including progress reports on your own community project) each month. Or, use your existing office bulletin board and keep it filled with interesting wildlife tidbits.

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Hold a Special Media Event

A key way to get coverage from local newspapers and radio and TV stations is to plan a special media event connected with your community service project. Keep these tips in mind if you want the local media to cover a special event: