Saving Rhinos

A guest blog by Kyla Laz

My name is Kyla. I am nine years old and I love animals. I also love to bake! I’ve always wanted to help people and animals in need. Two years ago, after talking to my mom about wanting to help families for the holidays, I decided to raise as much money as I could. My goal was to give a local family a wonderful Christmas. I thought I could bake and sell treats in order to raise money to donate. My mom and I created a plan where I would bake something yummy every week and sell it to friends and neighbors. We called it “Kyla’s Kindness Bakes.” After six months, I made enough money to give a local family everything they needed for Christmas, including lots of toys! 

Last year, I chose to continue with my weekly bake sales, but wanted to help white and black rhinos instead. I live in San Diego, California where I am lucky enough to visit a world-famous zoo and safari park. The rhinos there are beautiful and gentle, and the zookeepers taught me about how they are endangered. There are so few of these awesome, intelligent creatures left in the world. It’s upsetting that people kill rhinos for their horns. When I learned that there were only two female Northern White rhinos left in the entire world, I wanted to help. I believe rhinos are misunderstood. Their horns are not meant for humans and are not medicine. Also, they are not mean or aggressive. They charge at random mainly because they have poor eyesight and sensitive hearing. They are actually very intelligent and they need their horns for protection. These vegetarian grazers play an important role in nature, and it is sad that they are being hunted by poachers. 

Starting last summer, I spent a lot of time baking and selling cupcakes, cookies, fudge, brownies, hand pies, pop tarts, rice krispie treats and more. It was really fun to do and our neighbors and friends loved all the treats! I also spent the time learning all about rhinos so that I could explain to my customers why they should help. By December, I had raised over $500. My parents helped me choose the best place for my donation, and we found the International Rhino Foundation. We also discovered that my donation was 100% matched by another donor during IRF’s  end of year campaign.

This project has taught me that we should always be kind to animals. Not everyone is kind, so we should help protect innocent creatures when we can. You do not need to be a grown up to help. You can be 3-years-old and make a difference. If you don’t like baking you can wash cars, sell lemonade or put on a play in order to raise money for a good cause. I think that saving the rhinos is a very good cause!