Philanthropiece Funds Internship at Ecotour Whale Watching Camp in Mexico 

A team of three including Deanna Camell, Colorado State University College of Business alumni ‘08, Alicia Robison, and Joseph Rogat traveled to Laguna San Ignacio in Baja Sur, Mexico for two months. Their trip was funded by Philanthropiece, WildCoast, and various private donors.  

Philanthropiece was formed in 1997 in Boulder, Colorado. The foundation supports locally defined projects that focus on education, health initiatives, quality of life, environmental issues, and business and economic opportunity with cultural sensitivity and an emphasis on sustainability. The team of three lived and worked primarily with a family-run whale watching business, Antonio Ecotours. The family members are traditionally fishermen, and they still fish every day when the whales are not at the local lagoon. However, from mid-December until the end of April, the lagoon transforms into a tourist haven because of the gray whales that migrate there to have their babies and feed before returning to Alaska.  

The team’s main objective was to help obtain financial sustainability for the Aguilars family who runs Antonio Ecotours. This was achieved through helping them develop simple business understanding, organization, accounting and marketing plans. Additionally, the family received funds from Philanthropiece and a government program to assist in building new sustainable infrastructure for the whale watching camp. Their second objective was to offer assistance to Pachico's Ecotours, another family owned whale watching business on the lagoon.