The beloved and endangered Giant Panda of southwestern China faces a number of challenges. Because there are only about 1,600 living in the wild, a major preservation focus has been on captive breeding and research programs, the most famous of which is located in the Wolong Nature Reserve.

Pandas International (www.pandasinternational.org ) has been supporting this Center for a decade providing critical veterinary equipment, medicines and supplies, as well as, incubators and formula for the newborns and cubs. It's difficult to fathom that the black and white bears we love to watch play and tumble about, begin their lives the approximate weight and size of a stick of butter.

May 11, 2008, 63 pandas lived peacefully at the Wolong Center under the care of the dedicated staff with tourists relishing the chance to share in such wonder.

May 12, 2008, the earthquake changed everything. One panda dead. One missing. The Wolong Panda Center damaged beyond repair. Thousands of acres of bamboo, the panda's main food source, buried under tons of rock and mud.

May of 2009, one panda was found dead from starvation. Farmers report that more and more wild pandas are emerging from the forest in search of food. The death of one member of an endangered species is unfortunate. Death because they don't have a reliable food source is unacceptable.

Pandas International has been asked to spearhead a campaign to replant bamboo. Pennies 4 Pandas (www.pennies4pandas.org) is a grassroots campaign designed to help in this effort.