I started my first business nearly 30 years ago as an author writing children’s wildlife books and collaborating with environmental nonprofits to promote the value of connecting with the natural world.  As a fitness enthusiast, I became a Certified Personal Trainer in 1997 and have specialized in addressing sedentary behavior from early childhood through adulthood.  

My experience studying wildlife in natural environments has taken me from the Amazon to Borneo, throughout the Galapagos Islands, and to the remote locations of Telegraph Cove, British Columbia, and the Dry Chaco ecoregion in Bolivia.

Seven years ago, I created the nonprofit 501c3, Hutan. Hutan is the cumulation of my work and passion. The purpose is to help improve quality of life. All life. Through education, collaboration, and fieldwork, my passion is about health for people of all ages, color, and race. I believe life is about connecting with the world.

“I am super impressed with Bob-a-loo! It involves learning and physical activity all rolled up into one amazing program. My daughter loved “becoming” the animals and learned more when she played the roles. The immersive aspect is very effective.”                                                       ~ Tracey Riley– Mom and Occupational Therapist

“We absolutely love Bob-a-loo! It is the perfect program for my active 3-year-old son. He talked about it constantly and was super excited on Bob-a-loo days. He looked forward to new challenges and I watched his confidence grow every day.” ~ Arlene Tefft

Why does children’s health matter to me, why should it matter to you?

As a child, I fell in love with nature. As an adult, I noticed how little time children spent outdoors, how disconnected they seemed from the natural world, and how sedentary many of their lives had become.  It was this observation that developed into my mission: to understand  what the effects were on child development.

After years of research, we now know that the disconnect from nature combined with sedentary behaviors have become an increasingly unhealthy path for children. In the past 30 years, drastic increases in childhood obesity, Type II diabetes, underdeveloped social and emotional skills, increased anxiety, and rising levels of stress are directly connected to sedentary lifestyles and a lack of physical activity.

This matters to me. Our young children are the future. I care what path they take in life. As a parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle, I have no doubt that their future matters to you, too.

Can you play a role in the outcome of a child’s health?

Yes! It is easy to say, “What I do won’t make a difference.” In reality, even the smallest effort when combined with others can make all the difference in the world!

We know this firsthand. Bob-a-loo has a proven track record of improving healthy behaviors in young children. We have been running, evolving, and conducting research on the program for seven years. Our research demonstrates how the program helps build a child’s confidence, improves their physical abilities, and creates excitement around healthy eating and activity.

Why is Bob-a-loo important and how            does it work?

The rates of childhood obesity as well as mental health concerns have been steadily rising over the past decade. Recent studies indicate soaring rates of depression, anxiety, and loneliness. Children have had limited opportunity to restore and build healthy emotional behaviors or release tension through nurturing physical activities. As a result, their emotional struggles are manifested in troubling behaviors such as inability to focus, emotional outbursts, lack of self-confidence, and social withdrawal.

Bob-a-loo connects children to each other, to their families, and to the excitement of adventure. So often, opportunities to grow and develop in healthy ways are either unavailable, inaccessible, or people are simply unaware of them.  We have hundreds of positive responses from parents and teachers, along with years of research that supports the effectiveness of the program. Bob-a-loo is an innovative adventure-based movement program that incorporates mimicry of wild animals to positively influence physical activity, sedentary behavior, and nutritional choices. It is the first program of its kind to leverage humankind’s innate connection to animals in order to improve well being in young children. 

We chose to focus specifically on preschool children because they navigate so many key cognitive, physical, social, and emotional transitions which ultimately help prepare them for life’s future challenges. Much of this vital development is shaped by environmental factors such as child-care quality and adult interaction. These factors can significantly impact brain development, learning, behavior, and physical and mental health throughout life.

What will you help us achieve?

We have extraordinary goals with an extraordinary mission: to improve the lives of children at the most impressionistic time in their lives, 2-5 years of age. Your donation brings us that much closer to achieving amazing things for thousands of children! Every donation makes you part of the mission: to return children to a life of health and wellbeing.

Contributing to our campaign connects all of us on a mission to help guide the youngest and most vulnerable among us toward a healthy path in life. From the children, right there in your household, to those thousands of miles away we have the ability and the responsibility to lead them toward a life of wellbeing. This funding, that you are a part of, allows us to develop the means to reach families everywhere. 

What we need and what you get

Our goal is $150,000.  With the funding we will:

• Produce 6 more Adventure Videos

• Expand our free web-based teacher and parent resource

• Market to more investors

• Create an outreach system so that people learn about Bob-a-loo

• Distribute what we have to offer to the world

Even a portion of this amount will help us develop and produce more Bob-a-loo Adventure Videos.

Where Do the Funds Go?

We have some amazing perks for you when you donate: everything from Adventure Books to activities, to bringing the Bob-a-loo program to a preschool of your choice. Check out the perks and choose what works best for you. 

A peek at our new Bob-a-loo Frog Fun Adventure Video. Jump in!

The impact

Young children are often overlooked when it comes to programs and activities. If we haven’t reached them at a very young age chances are we will not be able to reach them in their later school years.  The early years of a child’s life are extremely important for later health and development. One of the main reasons is how fast the brain grows during early childhood.  How the brain grows is strongly affected by the child’s experiences with other people and the world. The impact you can help us make on the direction of a child’s life can be remarkable. 

We want to reach children across the world. With your help, we believe that is possible. To date we have reached thousands of children, parents and educators with programs and  teacher resources. Here are some of the results of our research:

The challenges

The only chance that we have of achieving our dreams is to take a risk. I firmly believe that you can’t just hope things will happen, you have to believe in your choices, follow your passions, and then do the work and take the risks.  From the minute we committed ourselves to establishing a nonprofit with a mission to focus on “quality of life” there have been challenges. Every day. They never stop coming, and we never stop facing them head on. Seven years later we are still here. Growing, evolving and working harder than ever to help children start life on a healthy path. Quite frankly, we can’t think of many things in life more important than that. 

As we continue to leap the hurdles involved in running a nonprofit we gain valuable experience that we apply to new ideas and directions. We listen to community voices, to parents, to children and we study the impact of our work. If we weren’t facing challenges in this ever-changing world we live in there would be no growth. It is the obstacles that we face that make our work better. 

Running a crowdfunding campaign is a challenge. Creating it was a challenge. Finding like-minded donors will be a challenge. We are ready. You can help us make it happen!

The Team and Crew

Other ways you can help

We understand that not every one can donate, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make a difference:

• Help us get the word out, make some noise! Use social media. Reach out to your friends, family and coworkers.  Pass the campaign along to business owners who support helping kids find a healthy path.
• Use the Indiegogo share tools! With just a couple clicks you will be helping us reach across  the globe.