Cross-posted from NYC trustee Catherine White’s blog, Just White Noise.

This month, Awesome NYC went somewhere no other Awesome Foundation Chapter has ever been:  Reptiles.

AF-NY has so far brought you LAZORS and a movable pipe organ.  This month we’re pushing forward the boundaries of Awesome even further.  We bring you…. Iguanas.

Real ones.

Elizabeth, one of this month’s Awesome grant recipients up close with Mayor Bloomberg

Picture: Brooklyn Children’s Museum

Iggy and Elizabeth live at The Brooklyn Children’s Museum, and their home needs a makeover.  Specifically, a whole new home.  The $1000 from NY-AF covers all of the supplies and the labor and production could happen in-house.  The enclosure will be created in 2-3 months meaning Iggy and Elizabeth will holding their iguana housewarming party during the summer.  We’re getting a PLAQUE too. Awesome.

As ever, the proposals speak for themselves.  Here’s the original application from Iggy and Elizabeth’s rep at the Museum: Jarad Astin, Live Animal Programmer at Brooklyn Children’s Museum:

“The Brooklyn Children’s Museum serves hundreds of thousands of visitors every single year, providing an opportunity for learning and play with a strong emphasis on the Natural Sciences, Culture, and Early Childhood experience. A goal for our Animal dept. this year is the construction of a new enclosure for our pair of Green iguanas (Iggy and Elizabeth), both of whom are used in exhibition programs. These animals are some of our public favorites, and in her 18 years, Elizabeth has put a smile on the faces of millions of visitors! (Awesome!). We’ve just come out of a large expansion, and greatly improved our Greenhouse experience – and what better place to construct an exhibit/ enclosure for these wonderful animals than there?! Our Live animal collection has been a core part of the museum experience for nearly years – giving inner-city children the chance to meet these critters up close, touch them, see them eat, learn about their diet and habitat, and open the mind to a general concept of conservation through this tactile process. Iguanas are depicted regularly on museum signage throughout the city, and it’s high-time we put them on exhibit in an environment that will help them flourish – where they will continue to do the “hard work” that makes them incredible ambassadors for both their species, the animal kingdom at large, and of course, the Brooklyn Children’s Museum! Both have been feature countless times in local news (both TV and print), and are utilized approx. 3-4 times per week in programming and exhibition. Truly AWESOME critters, doing AWESOME work!”

Me co-presenting April’s award with fellow micro-trustee Elizabeth Stark

Picture: Steve Rosenbaum