Doctor Nicholas Grumbine
Doctor
Nicholas Grumbine is Co-founder of the Amazonian Ecological
Preserve. He and his wife Elizabeth Radovicz founded the
Preserve in January of 2004. The dream began to be realized
when the founders were able to purchase a large piece of
property in the Amazon rain forest. The property was mainly
virgin forest and we want the property to remain undeveloped.
We dedicated ourselves to the preservation of this region
and developed the not-for-profit organization to fund, support
and develop this dream.
Doctor Grumbine has been a foot and ankle surgeon since he
finished his training in 1973. He has been a dedicated professional
who has taught surgery for many years and has published many
professional articles. He has been nationally recognized in
his field of surgery and has lectured internationally. Doctor
Grumbine has served as a senior surgeon for The Baja Project
For Crippled Children for many years.
There
has always been a love of animals and wonderment of nature
for Doctor Grumbine. The dream of a rain forest preserve
developed over the last twelve years with my Brasilian born
wife Elizabeth. In 1997 this dream was further stimulated
by our visit to a preserve in Costa Rica. He had visited
other rain forests in Hawaii, Florida, Venezuela, Jamaica,
Mexico, El Salvador and Brasil. Doctor Grumbine and his wife
first visited the Amazon rain forest in January 2003. They
fell in love with the region and they began to prepare for
purchasing some rain forest. The dream has grown into
a reality and is to be a gift to posterity.
Elizabeth Radovicz
The
founder of the the Amazonian Ecological Preserve is Elizabeth
Radovicz. She is a Brasilian Citizen who was born in Rio
de Janeiro in 1957. She always had a love for animals and
was constantly taking-in a stray or injured animal. She was
raised poor and was one of eight children. Her parents were
able to immigrated to the United States of America
when she was 14 years of age.
Elizabeth's
family moved to New Jersey where she was to learn "perfect
English". She had a wonderful American dream to raise
a family in the United State. One day however, she wished
to return to her home land of Brasil. Elizabeth wanted to return
to the Brasil and return the favor that was given
to her and her family, to help the country of Brasil
and the Brasilian children.
The
family moved to California and Elizabeth married and raised
two children. She completed training as a Cosmetologist and
later became a Master Make-up artist. Elizabeth and I met
after moving into her neighborhood. We became friends and
then we fell in love. We finished raising both of our children.
The children are living their own lives now. As we find our
selves with an empty nest we decided to travel and explore
our dreams and passions.
The
dream of her childhood always returned to her. she needed
to give something back to Brasil and the world. The adventure,
beauty and marvel of the rain forest became a focus of her
passion. Much destruction was
observed in the rain forest on her first visit to the Amazon.
What could be done to change the horror of burning the forest
and the uncontrolled clear cutting of the forest? Elizabeth
had to step-up and save some of the rain forest.
