A huge thank you to everyone who came to, or otherwise supported, our 2024 Gala held on September 20 in our founding city of Santa Fe!
Whether you were present or unable to join us at the event, the staff and I wanted to share the excitement and energy from the evening—and why Santa Fe was such a meaningful backdrop for the celebration this year.
As the birthplace of our organization, Santa Fe holds a special place in our history. With deep community ties and a strong membership base, it was in Santa Fe that WildEarth Guardians first began as Forest Guardians. Our mission to protect and restore the wildlife, wild places, wild rivers, and health of the American West was initiated in 1989 to fight logging on New Mexico’s Elk Mountain. Today, that work has expanded beyond New Mexico, touching ecosystems and frontline communities across the region as we now have field offices in Denver, Colorado; Portland, Oregon; Missoula, Montana; Boise, Idaho; Tucson, Arizona; and Seattle, Washington.
This milestone event brought together a diverse group of passionate supporters, some of whom have been with us since 1989, and highlighted the tremendous impact WildEarth Guardians continues to have across the American West. The event was my inaugural Gala since taking over as Executive Director from John Horning back in February. It was exciting to acknowledge John’s leadership legacy, talk about our historic work, and share insights into plans for how we’ll scale our effort and increase our impact and movement influence by completing the organization’s first strategic plan in 30 years, which is centered on building power by building the “Bigger We.” The Bigger We being an intergenerational, multi-racial, cross class, pro-feminist, and pro-democracy majority working towards long-lasting systemic change.
We are so thankful to all who donated to our auction!
Together, we raised over $200,000 during the Gala, ensuring that WildEarth Guardians can continue its critical work across New Mexico and throughout the West. These funds will help boost our work as we move into the year-end fundraising season with a goal of exceeding our annual goals and setting us up for an impactful 2025! Whether you’re a long-time supporter, first-time donor, or are still getting to know us, we are so grateful to have you in our community as we work together to protect the wild places and communities that make the American West so unique.
A big shout out also goes to Andrea Romero, New Mexico State Representative, Stephanie Garcia Richard, State Land Commissioner, Anna Hansen, Santa Fe County Commissioner, Tarin Nix, Deputy Commissioner of Public Affairs, who all joined us for the evening.
Jazmin “Sunny” Murphy
One of the evening’s highlights was hearing from our guest speaker, Jazmin “Sunny” Murphy, a researcher who works at intersections of culture, ideology, legislation, economics, and land use with canid ecology, with special emphasis on diasporic African and Indigenous peoples in the United States. Jazmin’s insights reminded us how deeply interconnected we are to nature and that ideologies dismissing this connection are at the root cause of the climate and extinction crises. Jazmin, about the future of conservation, offered this challenge as an invitation in her closing:
“Interactivists are like Guardians, in that they are not satisfied with the present or the past and so they innovate new solutions in order to bring us all a better society. So I challenge you tonight to join WildEarth Guardians to become interactivists and build a Bigger We.”
Guardians board members Gay Dillingham and Jim Furnish enjoying the Gala.
We’re thrilled to share that our work with Jazmin continues as she’ll be joining us for a longer discussion in an upcoming Guardians webinar—stay tuned for details!
Again, we are so very grateful that so many of you generously supported – and continue to support – our cause in multiple ways. Know that you are making a difference and your financial contributions are helping to build momentum for our ambitious landscape scale goals for the American West, and we are looking forward to growing this impact in the months to come.
Lastly, if you have any questions or want to connect further, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me directly.
For people and the planet,
Hop Hopkins
