From "THE GRIZZLY MAZE," Copyright © 2005 By Nick Jans, Published in paperback by Plume, a member of Penguin Group (USA) INC., 375 Hudson, New York, NY 10014
Dangerously Close
At the end of each of those first few summers, Treadwell returned to Malibu. He and Jewel Palovak, his friend and co-author, put serious time into discussing how they might turn his burgeoning passion for bears into something more. Treadwell sold photos at crafts fairs, and he began doing free presentations for elementary school students.
He loved the children as much as they loved him. With his own kidlike enthusiasm, jumping up and down and having the kids repeat bear facts after him, he was a natural. What's more, the youngsters were learning about bears, and coming to care about them too. Thus the idea of Grizzly People was born: a grass-roots, nonprofit organization with a professionally designed website, dedicated to protecting the bears, studying them and educating people. Palovak claims that Treadwell reached about 10,000 schoolchildren a year. The letters from excited kids and grateful, impressed teachers poured in.