Save the Bats! Giveaway

Bats all over the northeast of America are dying from a devastating disease called White Nose Syndrome. Not much is known about it, except that it disturbs bats' natural hibernation patterns and sends them flying around in the winter when they should be resting. As a result, they use up all of their fat reserves (in a time of year when there is no ready food supply to replenish them), get fatigued, and die.

White Nose Syndrome is serious business. It has a mortality rate that hovers around 90%. Bats of all species—especially the little brown bat, or myotis lucifugus—are at tremendous risk. And without bats, mosquito and other pest populations will skyrocket, meaning nastier, buggier summers and more money spent on pesticides for crops.

Bats are near and dear to me personally, too. It comes from working in a cave. I'd like to able to go to work in ten, fifteen years and still have the possibility of seeing a visitor bat. :)


How the giveaway works!

1. Find a bat item you really like on Etsy for $20 or less. I got you started with a super-cute Save the Bats! treasury, but any appropriately-priced bat item will do.
2. Leave a link to the item here in the comments, along with an email address. To protect against spamming, I suggest disguising it along the lines of "[jane.doe] at gmail.com without the brackets" or something similar.
3. On September 8th I will pick a random blog comment (via random number generator). The winner gets that item from me!
4. I will also donate (and post photographic proof of me doing so ;]) the cost of the Etsy item to the National Speleological Society's WNS Rapid Response Fund. The NSS's fund goes directly towards purchasing field equipment and other necessities for field work; the more we learn about the disease, the faster we can find a cure.
5. You get a cute little bat souvenir to help spread awareness!
6. You may only enter with one Etsy link, but I will accept up to two bonus "entries" with comments that have a link to a Tweet, blogpost, forum comment, etc, linking back to this one. If posting in someone else's blog, forum, or other community, though, please do try to make it relevant. No spamming for the bats. ;)
7. In the event that someone else buys what you originally wanted, the winner will get to pick another bat item at $20 or less (cost is before shipping).
8. Winner will be announced on the blog, and contacted by email for shipping address

Look at what you could win!


Amigurumi Bat by lapage


A WonkyBat Named Quentin Tote Bag by WonkyRocket


Flying Bats Pendant by MayoMayhem

So what are you waiting for? Start shopping!