User:Rgloner/sandbox/Muskwa Club

Muskwa Club (officially The Muskwa Club, Inc.,) is an international student service organization whose purpose is to bring a diverse group of students together to build a better future. Muskwa is a registered 501(c)(3) California non-profit organization. Muskwans seek to enrich their lives and the community through value-added activities, STEM projects, and service opportunities. The organization’s motto translates to “As one, we rise to conserve, defend, innovate, and include.” While the organization does not fall under a specific category, in recent years, its programs have seen a strong environmental emphasis. Since the organization’s revival in 2010, Muskwa has grown to include 300 members (called “Muskwans”) in over 70 chapters and locations in the United States, Austria, The Netherlands, Germany, and Mexico.

History
Founding and Early Activities: The Muskwa Club was founded at Palos Verdes Intermediate School, in Palos Verdes Estates, CA, on May 21, 2010. The organization, initially consisting of three members, had the stated goal to provide value-added educational activities and service opportunities to its members, as a way of replacing the intellectually stimulating field trips that had been lost in the transition to middle school. The organization also sought to provide a sanctuary for those made uncomfortable by the middle school social scene and give not involved in the popular activities a place where they could be valued and appreciated. To this end, Muskwa began a series of weekly field trips to Los Angeles museums and landmarks. By December 2010, its initial membership had quadrupled. In February 2011, the second Muskwa chapter, in ‘Aiea, Hawaii, followed shortly by the third, in Saratoga, California, opened. This vaulted Muskwa into a new era of expansion, in which it began to rapidly march towards national status. By June 2011, the organization had ten chapters and had ratified the Great Charter, the governing document for the organization. In mid-2011, most of the organization’s members transitioned to high school, leading to fears that the organization might disappear. However, it only continued to grow; by the end of 2011, Muskwa was eight times its original size, with chapters spanning the United States.

Saving the Vaquita
The Vaquita Effort Begins: By 2012, Muskwa had grown sufficiently large that it had the potential to become a powerful force for good. In March 2012, Muskwa’s central leadership proposed that the organization launch a major effort to help save the endangered vaquita porpoise, a species endemic to the Gulf of California in Mexico. Then, it was believed that there were between 200 and 250 vaquitas in existence, making it one of the most endangered species in the world, and the world’s most endangered marine mammal. The vaquita’s greatest threat is gillnets set for fish and shrimp, which accidentally entangle and drown vaquitas as bycatch. The membership readily assented, and an effort was launched that would change Muskwa forever.

Muskwa’s overall mission was to remove gillnets from the vaquita’s range and replace them with vaquita-safe nets already developed by the Mexican Government, but the organization specifically chose to focus its initial campaign on public awareness of the obscure species. The effort began with a series of classroom presentations at local schools, and continued in October 2012 with Muskwa’s first public awareness booth at the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium’s Sea Fair, which attracted over 200 visitors. Fall 2012 also saw many other Muskwa activities spring to life; Muskwa hosted a public lecture series entitled Muskwa Amplified whereby Muskwa members could showcase their knowledge and talents, and Muskwa organized an engineering team, under the auspices of the Muskwa Propelled program, which participated in the JPL Invention Challenge. This marked the beginning of a strong Muskwan engineering tradition that would become a major part of the organization’s activities.