stick your neck out

Although Eleanor Stopps received many more well-known and prestigious awards, she liked to call attention to her Giraffe Award. Eleanor mentioned the award in a 2005 interview with Robin Ornelas for the Jefferson County Historical Society:

"A lot of people don't know about the Giraffe organization. I got a certificate one day and it said, 'Congratulations, you are a giraffe.' It is an international organization who used to have headquarters in New York but now have headquarters on Whidbey Island, WA."

The Giraffe Organization can be found at http://www.giraffe.org. Its motto is 'Nobis est (it's up to us). So stick your neck out.' Their mission is 'to move people to stick their necks out for the common good'.

The citation on the Giraffe website reads: 'Eleanor Stopps of Port Ludlow WA waged a successful 10-year effort to turn Protection Island, nesting place for three-quarters of the seabirds in Puget Sound, into a wildlife refuge. The activist retiree lobbied relentlessly, using her savings to pay the costs of her campaign.'