While visiting Africa two decades ago, Kelcey Grimm immediately connected with a set of orphaned lion cubs, dropped everything, and moved to a new continent to ultimately fight for their freedom and welfare. But in her many years in the bush and now back stateside, she has realized there are tradeoffs in balancing caretaking for a few and looking out for the many. Find out how a need for connection and something greater than yourself can be fulfilled in more than one way.
Guest Kelcey Grimm, Dartmouth '96, planned a one-year sabbatical from her VC job with three months in southeast Asia, three months in India, and three months in Africa. But after meeting a loveable group of lion dens and bonding with them immediately, she scrapped her itinerary and stayed with her new brood. No long after, though, she realized all was not as it seemed. Thus started nearly two decades of struggles against the canned farming industry, the South African government, and local actors as she has attempted to conserve wildlands and the species that make them their home.
Kelcey co-founded the Enkosini Wildlife Reserve (now Lapolosa Wilderness) in South Africa and 2001. She has since rescued a variety of wildlife, and now dedicates all her time to the education, management and social change needed to protect wildlife and wild lands in Africa. The vast majority of the operating budget for the conservancy is derived from the Enkosini Eco Experience, a collection of voluntourism projects that Kelcey curates and helps to bring to life.
In this episode, find out from Kelcey about the balance between doing what’s right and finding what works and how a need for connection and something greater than yourself can be fulfilled in more than one way.
About This Episode's Guest
Kelcey Grimm is the co-founder of the Enkosini Wildlife Reserve (now Lapolosa Wilderness) and Director of Philanthropy and the driving force behind the Enkosini Eco Experience. After well over a decade living deep in the bush and off the grid in Africa, she is running her organization’s operation from Seattle, where she lives with her two children.
Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley
Music: Brian Burrows
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