We are the Pine Barrens Birding Club of Stockton University. Our mission is to offer our members a well-rounded education on birds and to encourage the cultivation of curiosity for the natural world around us, while also maintaining the club as a safe and inclusive space for the Stockton community. Our club has been through a few different iterations over the years, but we were only able to officially get it back up and running again in the fall of 2022. As such, the university did not let us apply for a budget until last year, and we weren’t able to start using any money we received from them until the fall. Operating without sufficient funding has been challenging, especially when we want to do events with the club that have an associated cost. Now that we do have a budget from the university, we’d like to continue to raise funds to support the club and our mission. We have put together a team of four members to participate in New Jersey Audubon’s World Series of Birding competition on May 10th this year. The World Series of Birding was founded in 1984 to raise money for popular environmental causes and to focus attention on the habitat needs of migrating birds. Participants attempt to tally, by sight or sound, as many bird species as possible over a 24-hour period. This year, we are using the competition as a fundraiser for the club, but since we are not fundraising for New Jersey Audubon, they impose a $100 registration fee for each person that participates. Our two goals for this GoFundMe page are to raise enough money to register all 4 participants and to use it as an online platform to collect pledges for the competition itself. Donations of any amount are greatly appreciated! Our goal is to tally 130 species. Include your email address in your donation if you'd like and we will send a report of how we did. We would all really appreciate your support to help make this competition a reality and keep our club running effectively!