Student fundraiser in Laramie boosts cheetah conservation with 5K run

Washington Park became a small civic stage for a global conservation cause as runners and walkers in cheetah-print gear, University of Wyoming students and Laramie residents turned out for the Run Like a Cheetah 5K and silent auction on May 2. The fundraiser offered adult, student and virtual entry options, with proceeds directed to the Cheetah Conservation Fund, the nonprofit the class chose to support.

The event came out of Price Schultz’s Public Relations Techniques course, supported by the University of Wyoming Communication and Journalism Department and tied to a Namibia study abroad class. Christy Bidstrup, a retired coin marketer with the U.S. Treasury Department, helped seed the project after an earlier trip to Namibia, where she saw cheetahs up close during conservation work. That personal connection gave the students a real nonprofit partner and, as Cindy Price Schultz put it, “Her cheetah experience led to our upcoming cheetah experience!”

The beneficiary carries global weight. Cheetah Conservation Fund, founded in Namibia in 1990 by Dr. Laurie Marker, says about 7,000 cheetahs remain in the wild, down from an estimated 100,000 a century ago. Marker began working with cheetahs at Wildlife Safari in the United States before moving into field conservation in Namibia, where CCF has built its reputation around research, education and coexistence programs.

That work includes the livestock guarding dog program CCF launched in 1994. The organization says 634 dogs were placed with Namibian farmers between 1994 and 2018, and 91% of farmers reported reduced livestock losses. CCF also says its field research and education centre near Otjiwarongo sits on a 100,000-acre private reserve and trains Namibian and university students, which gives the UW trip later in May a practical next step beyond the race in Laramie. For Albany County, the fundraiser looked less like a one-day novelty than a student-built bridge from campus organizing to long-term conservation work.