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.  In addition, we are excited for our new and growing partnership with Ohio University's Infectious and Tropical Disease Institute.

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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.  We have since recieved two generous grants (2022-2023, $31,000; 2024-2025, $50,000) from the Ohio EPA's Ohio Environmental Education Fund, which have allowed us to develop the project into a multi-school collaboration.

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Finally, we have to note the growing number of schools collaborating with New Philadelphia High School on this project: Northwest High School, Tuscarawas Valley High School, Sandy Valley High School, Shenandoah High School, Morgan High School, Harrison Central High School, Alexander High School, Huntington High School, and Granville High School.

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Are you interested in collaborating with us?  Please send us an email!