It takes a team of collaborators to bring a multidimensional project like this to life, and we have been fortunate to find generous help from a number of different people and organizations, including the Tuscarawas County Parks Department, The Wilderness Center, and the Camp Tuscazoar Foundation.  In addition to the wonderful support we continue to receive from the New Philadelphia City Schools and the Tuscarawas County community, we could not have gotten very far without ongoing help from Dr. Risa Pesapane and her Parasite and Pathogen Ecology Lab at The Ohio State University, Dr. Bill Peterman and his lab at The Ohio State University's School of Environment and Natural Resources, Dr. Sebastian Kraves and his team at miniPCR, and recent partnerships with Nikon Instruments, and Sawyer Products.

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Studying the ecology of pathogens requires molecular biology, and that can get expensive.  We were fortunate to receive our initial funding to get this project started from The Entomological Society of America's Chrysalis Fund and the New Philadelphia Quaker Foundation.  Building upon this earlier support, we received a $31,000 grant from the Ohio EPA's Ohio Environmental Education Fund to expand the project over the 2022-2023 school year, and, building upon our initial success, we are thrilled to announce that we have received a $50,000 Ohio EPA OEEF grant for our current 2024-2025 Appalachian Ohio Tick Project!