Who is Allison Boyer?

Starting at just the age of 7-years-old, Allison Boyer loved animals. She saw what the palm oil crisis was doing to orangutan habitats and how they were getting ruined, and she knew she had to do something. She wasn’t sure what she would do since she was so young, but she couldn’t just sit around and do nothing.

Fast forward to current times and she created a nonprofit organization to help orangutan lives called Purses for Primates. She has fully scaled this organization and raised over $27,000 to help protect orangutans and their habitats.

What does she do?

Allison currently runs this organization full time, and the way she runs her organization is so unique. She collects gently-used, name-brand handbags from all over the U.S., and she attends fundraising events where she resells the bags. 100% of the proceeds go to the Orangutan Outreach conservation group that’s based in New York City.

Not only does Allison fight for animal rights, but she also does a lot with children to raise awareness of what issues our wild animals deal with, and she teaches them how they can help make a change. Allison is a founding member of the conservation group her proceeds go to children’s program called Forest 101, where she serves as their ambassador. She teaches young kids about the dangers of pollution and how we can help our animals by doing what’s right.

Why did she start this movement?

Allison stated in a recent interview that “Orangutans are such intelligent animals – more intelligent than we give them credit for. They teach, learn and grow from each other.” This is something she tells every kid she works with – they aren’t just animals that sit around and eat all day, they have brains just like we do and they can be just as smart as we are. In that same interview, she also stated, “I have and always will feel personally responsible to try my best to rally as many people as I can to help save these creatures.”

Allison dedicated her success in her cause to her long-time best friend, Natalie Katsikas, who has been with her every step through this journey – Natalie is her only friend that stuck with her and believed in her abilities and capabilities to help save this species. Allison is an inspiration to so many people all around the world, and we should all strive to be more like her every day!

Sources used for reference, but all wording is my own.

https://www.teenvogue.com/gallery/8-young-environmentalists-working-to-save-earth