Supporting Iowa Lakeside Laboratory
As a Board of Regents facility, Lakeside receives state funds for staff salaries, utilities, supplies, and other basic costs. We welcome your support for the following special needs:
Scholarships
Lakeside hosts 80 to 100 college students every summer. Most of them need financial aid, as they must give up summer jobs to attend Lakeside while continuing to pay rent on their apartments at college. If you so choose, scholarships can be set up to support students in a particular area of study or from a designated college or university.
Buildings and Grounds
Contributions are needed for repairs and remodeling of Lakeside’s historic buildings, including Main Cottage and the stone laboratory buildings. Also, as Lakeside fulfills its new mission as a Regents Resource Center, improvements are needed to make it a more welcoming and visitor-friendly place. Opportunities are available to fund trails, footbridges, landscaping, directional signs, and other amenities.
Laboratory Equipment
Lakeside has few microscopes of its own and must borrow them from the universities every summer. With better equipped labs, Lakeside could expand its programming year-round. Funds are also needed for water-testing equipment so Lakeside can better monitor water quality in Northwest Iowa.
Environmental Education
“Studying nature in nature” has always been Lakeside’s theme, from its founding in 1909 to the present. College students continue to come every summer, but Lakeside now provides school and public programs as well. The Friends of Lakeside Lab are an active partner in this effort. Both the Friends and Lakeside welcome sponsors for their programs.
Writers in Residence
As a Regents Resource Center, Lakeside is expanding the services it provides. New in 2007 was a Writers in Residence program. The professional writers who lived on campus provided a poetry workshop for budding writers, taught in local schools, and conducted public readings of their work. Sponsors are needed to continue and grow this program.
Lectures
Jane Goodall visited the Lab in October 2007, providing a rare chance for local high school students to hear and meet an internationally acclaimed scientist and author. Her appearance was sponsored by the Messengers of Healing Winds. Sponsors are needed so that other speakers can come to Lakeside.
Informal Education
In today’s busy world, some people cannot attend the scheduled programs that Lakeside provides. Interpretive signs and brochures offer people a chance to learn when their schedules allow. Lakeside would like to share the story of its wonderful natural and historic heritage with visitors and needs funds to develop the requisite interpretive media.
Special Events
Lakeside will observe its centennial in 2009. Many events are being planned, including a reunion for faculty and students and a public “birthday party.” The centerpiece of the celebration will be a 3-month showing of the David Rogers Big Bugs, a nationally known sculpture exhibit in its first Iowa appearance. Sponsors are needed for all these events.
Ecological restoration
Lakeside has extensive natural areas, most of which need restoration. Weedy trees and brush have invaded areas that were formerly prairie or open woods. Garlic mustard, an invasive plant from Europe, is threatening native wildflowers in shady areas. Donors can sponsor a conservation intern for the summer and provide supplies for the intern’s restoration work.
Internships
Internships provide valuable experience for college students, while helping Lakeside advance its mission. Sponsors are needed for internships in conservation, public relations, and facilities management.
Faculty positions
Donors may sponsor faculty positions in various fields, from archaeology to conservation biology to watershed hydrology.
Contributions are tax-deductible and can be made directly to Lakeside Lab or to our non-profit support group, the Friends of Lakeside Lab. For assistance in finding the right opportunity for you, please click the links below.
