Plant a Seed with Little Tree Huggers!
Please continue to help the National Capital Region's first bilingual, nature-based preschool grow and impact the lives of hundreds of more children and families! Our rain-or-shine outdoor learning environment needs to be accessible to as many children as possible!!! Even though the pandemic sabotaged the purchase of the first two properties we looked at in 2021 and 2022, we are in the process of purchasing a suitable place within 5 miles of our current location and all we need are $150,000 to update the property and cover the zoning & licensing requirements to operate independently! Check us out in action
Little Tree Huggers (LTH) Earth Center is the evolution of LTH LLC, a home-based child care, licensed to operate with a maximum of 12 children since 2015 in Leesburg, VA. Due to an overwhelming response to our curriculum and award-winning environmental commitments like solar and geothermal, we were urged by the local community to embark on the process of expanding LTH into an environmental educational center able to impact the lives of hundreds of more children and families. LTH Earth Center was incorporated in 2020 as the charitable arm of LTH LLC and we will work together over the next few years until we are able to purchase sufficient acreage to meet the necessary zoning and licensing requirements for our wildlife sanctuary and Earth Center.
What Makes Us Special:
As early as 2016, LTH started being recognized by the community for our dedication and commitment to environmental education and innovative sustainability practices. In addition to implementing a comprehensive nature-based, bilingual curriculum, we established a Wildlife sanctuary, recognized by the Loudoun Nature Conservancy, the Audubon Society, and the National Wildlife Federation. We also set the example by installing geothermal heating and cooling, an extensive 48-panel solar array, and various other energy efficiency solutions to make LTH carbon neutral over the years! LTH was a Loudoun County Sustainable Business Challenge Platinum Award Winner in 2016 and, in 2017, we received the County’s top award: the Loudoun Sustainable Business Excellence Award!
Recognizing the need for more environmental awareness, we became founding members of the Virginia Green Initiative (VGI) in 2018. https://www.vgi.green VGI was a statewide initiative to encourage and promote a healthy and sustainable quality of life for all Virginians. We assisted families and businesses in improving and becoming more sustainable and recognized their efforts to use sustainable best practices to positively impact their bottom lines! 2019, 2020 and 2021 saw us recognized yet again, this time at the state level with First Place Platinum and Innovation Awards from VGI!
With more and more families becoming interested in what we were doing, it was inevitable that we would need to expand from our 12-student population. In early 2020, at the urging of parents and community leaders, we incorporated LTH Earth Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the next phase of LTH’s growth. Donors can now deduct contributions made to LTH under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3)!
Where Your Donation Will Go:
Expansion. With your support, we will purchase and update a property within 5 miles of our current location, which will be destined as a wildlife habitat and environmental education/arts center, servicing upwards of 60 children.
Scholarships. Once our updates are complete, your continued generosity will also be instrumental in assisting us fund a minimum of 5 scholarships a year so that lower and middle-income families will be able to take advantage of our nature-based curriculum. Your generous donation of any amount will be greatly appreciated. However, for institutional donors or anyone interested in funding specifics, you can specify where you would like your funding to go. For example, a donation of $12,000 can fund yearly tuition for a child, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 11 ½ months out of the year or half tuition for two children.
Care and Feeding Our Rescue Animal Friends. Your donation will also assist in caring for LTH’s two ponies, two alpacas, two goats, two pigs, four lambs and various chickens, ducks and turkeys, which our children lovingly care for daily as part of LTH’s curriculum!
Each $100 donation feeds our ponies, Alpacas, and Goats for a month and each $30 donation feeds our hens, ducks and turkeys for a week!
Supplementing Teachers Salaries. Training and retention of quality staff is always a challenge. Until such time as Little Tree Huggers Preschool can grow beyond our 12-child capacity, donations will be used to supplement our teacher's incomes so they remain motivated and earn a living wage.
For those who are truly passionate about sustainability, please consider one of the following partnership pledge levels over the next 12 to 24 months:
Platinum Partner: $400/month for 24 months
Gold Partner: $200/month for 24 months
Silver Partner: $100/month for 24 months
Community Partner: $100/month for 12 months
Family Partner: $50/month for 12 months
