Chance's work breaks down into approximately 8 categories:

1. Education... visiting groups of kids and talking talking talking about their (kids') responsibility toward the earth. (Sometimes Chance will direct his attention towards specific groups of adults in the form of speaking at a civic club meeting, and or talking to an entire city council about issues that come before them that he feels will impact the future of wildlife and children!) He has also taught conservation at conventions, on the radio and even on television morning shows. Most of his efforts however, are directed toward kids.

2. Demonstrations... He actually takes a small "zoo" to a classroom or an event and speaks while Josh is his "animal wrangler."  He does dozens of demonstrations every school year.

3. Personal Study... by this I mean that he spends time on his own attending camps, following experts around, reading books, watching videos and talking to people who can help him develop his own base of knowledge and understanding of how the animal world works. There is a ranch out in the Hill Country run by a man named J. David Bamberger. Mr. Bamberger and his wife Margaret have Chance out to their 5,500 acre nature laboratory to study native grasses, aquatic biology, water, rocks, endangered species, flora and a lot more.

4. Research....like studying a population of female Sharks to determine how their feeding habits change during their cycle, or canvasing hundreds of children to find out what they know about certain conservation issues. These projects take months to do, but the process of collecting data and learning how to analyze it and document it on graphs and spreadsheets has been invaluable. Much of his research ends up being material he uses for presentations he gives to adult audiences.

5. Fundraising for education or rescue groups... Chance learns about an animal or a species or even a group of children who are struggling to learn about wildlife...and he gets down and dirty and starts raising money. Usually he involves other kids, like in his pennies for raptors campaign. Sometimes he deliberately enters a contest that the winners get to choose a non-profit group to whom a check will be written (He did this with the Land's End clothing Company, which named him as one of their "Born Heroes." As a result, a check for $5,000.00 was written to the Salado Creek Foundation which is a local foundation dedicated to perserving the last wild waterway in San Antonio, and at the same time, educates inner city kids who live or go to school near the creek about the wonders of this natural resource!)

6. Film making... this is where much time is spent writing scripts and tossing around ideas about animals that he thinks he might be able to feature in a video. To put a  tape together takes months from the point of coming up with the idea, finding a way to get to that animal, and really figuring out what kids need to know about that animal and it's situation. Then Josh starts editing. The edits can take months!

7. Animal Rescue... When people figure out who Chance is and where he lives, they start knocking on his family's front door holding boxes!  All kinds of boxes! One day recently, 6 teenagers showed up at the door holding nothing other than a baby screech owl! And just 2 hours before that, a neighbor showed up with a dove. This summer Chance has been talking about doing a tape about how "Not every animal needs rescuing." In both of those situations, he had to take the people back to where they found the animals and help them set up a safe way to put it back!  ( What Chance has learned is that these birds are "branchers." They are about to start flying. They aren't hurt. They aren't starved. They are healthy and their parents are WAY more stressed that the offspring got picked up and taken away, than they were that the chick was on the ground.) Sometimes however, the animal is truly injured. That's where Chance's cool "amazing" dad steps in.  His dad helps him assess what is going on AND driving him to the proper rescue facility which would be equipped for handling such an injury. Their family gets porcupines, tortoises, turtles, birds, frogs, snakes, spiders, owls, pets...you name it, they have gotten it!
 
8. Global Work...Chance had the opportunity to meet and spend 3 days with Dr. Jane Goodall about a year and a half ago. Since then, his concept of conservation has expanded to include the issue of Peace. She taught him that humans will never really be able to devote themselves to animal issues and habitat conservation if their families, communities and countries are being torn apart by war and fighting. It makes sense... who has time to plant a tree or care about habitat destruction if they are simply trying to survive? So Chance has embraced a project that Dr. Jane asked him to be involved with called International Peace Day Doves. Basically it involves getting your friends together, building a giant dove and flying it on the United Nations' International Day of Peace which is on September 21st every year. Last year he had over 40 people attend and fly 4 giant doves! At the end of every tape now, he encourages kids to have their own Peace Day Event and fly their own doves. He directs kids to www.JaneGoodall.org for downloading directions on how to build the doves.
 
Another project he has just begun to embrace is a bike project in Africa. Through an intern who was working with Dr. Jane and is now working in the peace Corp, Chance learned about a project for a village in Ghana. For $50 dollars, they can purchase a bike, get the tools to maintain it and attend an 8 hour bike maintenence course. Of course, the particular village in Ghana that Stephen Hamm is working with, cannot afford the bikes..and their children do not attend the school that is too far to walk. So Chance is helping to raise $50 dollar contributions through word of mouth so that the kids can get to school.
 
At the same time, he has just embraced an organization in Namibia Africa called R.E.S.T. which stands for Rare and Endangered Species Trust. REST does a lot of work with all kinds of animals, but Chance's interest is in the Cape Griffon Vulture they are trying to save. There are only 11 left in the whole country. The organization needs support financially, but Chance is looking for a way to impact the area educationally as well. The bird has been declining because of the poisons farmers are using. Chance's family is planning a trip with Kim Hoskins who is a friend of Chance's, a raptor handler, a teacher, a veterinary technician and a wildlife advocate, to visit the region next summer where we will have education materials, video tapes and possibly a live demonstration that he can conduct in villages throughout the area. In the meantime, he is working on a fundraising campaign to keep the group going this year.