Botetourt native John Guillote has the opportunity of a lifetime waiting for your vote.
Longtime friend Trevor Frost is in a competition to win a National Geographic Expedition, and if Frost is the winner, Guillote will be his co-leader.
Trevor and John are eager to focus world attention on the endangered species in Sumatra and all of Indonesia and to support the wildlife park rangers who work tirelessly to keep deadly poachers at bay.
To take this expedition, they need to win the National Geographic (NG) Expedition Granted challenge that’s under way right now. To win, they need to collect more votes on the NG website than another hopeful, and they need those votes by April 6.
According to his mother, John Guillote grew up on the Talbot family farm at the foot of Tinker Mountain in Daleville. He’s a product of Troutville Elementary, Lord Botetourt High School Class of 1998 where he lettered in cross country, Virginia Western Community College Class of 2001 and Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Class of 2005 where he graduated with BS in environmental studies.
“Who knew that his love of outdoors and lifelong observation of nature would morph into a world stage?” his mother, Emily Talbot-Guillote, asked.
Trevor Frost, a 25-year-old National Geographic Young Explorer, VCU graduate and Richmond native, is who voters need to cast their ballot for if he and Guillote are to win the expedition to Sumatra, Indonesia.
If they win, they would travel to Sumatra where rangers and scientists risk their lives everyday to protect these vital ecosystems for little to no pay, according to the NG website. “Without our support, we risk losing these conservationists as well as the places they have worked so hard to protect,” Trevor says in his blog about the expedition.
The expedition would use science and media to ensure greater support for what he calls “these environmental superheroes” so these ecosystems will have the opportunity to thrive.
The two young explorers are pitted against one another for the ultimate prize of $10,000 to go on their expedition. The runner-up still receives $2,500.
“Voting for this project will allow you to play a part in both exposing the need for greater support of wildlife rangers and directly providing increased assistance to them worldwide,” Trevor says on the NG website. “In helping wildlife rangers, your vote will also protect endangered areas and species that are important to humanity.”
For more information, or to vote, visit http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/expedition-week-granted, or Google Expedition Granted. To vote, you must register, then you can vote once a day, every day until the contest voting ends on April 6. The winner will be announced Thursday night, April 7.