An Evening With Dr. Jane Goodall…

On Wednesday evening, March 18th, the Augheys were fortunate to have the opportunity to attend a lecture and private cocktail event at Denver University by none other than Dr. Jane Goodall. Rita has read most of her books and truly admires her work. The event was put on by a local non-profit group called Global Explorers.

Afterwards all were lead to the lecture hall.  There were an estimated 700 people there to be inspired by her words and life experiences at her Gombe Reserve in Africa studying one of what she calls “the 5 great apes”, chimpanzees.  (The other 4 are gorillas, orangutans, bonobos and the great  “white” ape-humans.) Although she is small in stature, Jane’s presence was indomitable as she approached the podium to speak. Her words were sincere and her message direct. She spoke about how her experiences over the years with her chimps have shown her that there are vast similarities between their species and ours. Whatever your origin of species belief is, there is no denying that chimps are our closest relative on the tree of life (science tells us that they share 96% of their DNA with us.)

She told the story of when she was beginning her career in Africa. She set out one day to follow one of the chimps into the forest. She followed as the chimp led her deeper and deeper sometimes having to bellycrawl to get through the thick growth. The chimp got ahead of her and she thought she had lost him. She crawled through a thick area of growth and found the great chimp sitting in a small clearing, almost as if waiting for her. She sat next to him and between them was a piece of fruit on the ground. She slowly picked it up and offered it to the chimp. He knocked the fruit out of her hand but then held on to her hand as if to say, “I appreciate the gesture but really don’t want the fruit.”. The chimp then left and Jane did not follow. She said at that moment she was in awe of the wordless exchange of emotions that had just transpired. Her point of the story was how interconnected life on our planet is.

She then talked about her international program called “Roots and Shoots” where young people are encouraged by the Jane Goodall Institute to be good stewards of the planet by identifying problems in their communities and carrying out projects that help to solve those problems. So many great projects have been completed through this program. This give young people the chance to make a difference!

Jane noted that she travels 300 days a year. At age 75 that is pretty amazing and shows a great dedication on her part. She was bestowed the honor of being an “Ambassador of Peace” by UNESCO and she takes this position very seriously.

She is passionate about conserving our natural resources and finding ways to bring solutions to the destruction of habitats and extinction of species primarily as it relates to primates. If we all could be just minutely as conscious about this as she is imagine what we might achieve to that end!

After her lecture all were invited to have her sign books. Of course Rita brought a first edition that Jane wrote in 2002 for her to sign. She was gracious and let us take her picture as well.

It was such a treat of an evening and one that left the 3 of us thinking about her messages!