I'm Paul Skrade - a Team Peacock veteran! Ragbrai and fun are in my blood. I serve UIU as an Associate Professor and ask that you help us continue to support Upper Iowa while I pedal across the great state of Iowa.

I’m riding for the Chimney Swift Tower project at UIU. The chimney swift is a small aerial insect-eating bird that is in serious decline, primarily due to loss of habitat and food. To help provide nesting habitat and allow students to study these birds, we would like to raise money to construct a Chimney Swift tower on the Fayette campus. The tower would also have an informational kiosk to teach people about this fascinating bird and UIU's connection to its most famous researcher. Click on view gallery next to Paul's always smiling face to see sample towers ours may resemble.

One of the early ornithologists to study Chimney Swifts was Althea Rosina Sherman (1853-1943), an illustrator, educator, and writer born in National, Iowa. Sherman took classes at Upper Iowa University in Fayette and then continued her education at Oberlin College, where she graduated in 1875. She followed that with a Master’s Degree in 1882 and worked as a public school teacher. Sherman then attended the Art Institute of Chicago and at the Art Students’ League in New York City, traveling the world and exploring different careers before returning home to National to care for her ailing parents. Althea Sherman became a pioneer in the study of Chimney Swifts. She hired carpenters to build a 28-foot-tall, 9-foot-square wooden tower to attract and observe the nesting birds, designing it with a staircase winding from bottom to top through three floors and enclosing a 2-foot-square artificial chimney with doors, windows, and peepholes into the chimney. This allowed Sherman to be the first person ever to witness and record the entire nesting cycle of these birds. Her Chimney Swift Journals, covering 18 years and more than 400 pages, form the cornerstone for all subsequent swift research. The tower on the Fayette campus would be much smaller but would still allow students to study these fascinating but declining birds.

We would like to raise money to construct a smaller Chimney Swift tower on campus with an informational kiosk to teach people about this fascinating bird and UIU's connection to its most famous researcher.

Prior to Team Peacock, we have raised $ 1,500 of the $ 5,000 needed through crowdfunding and grants from bird conservation and research organizations like the Iowa Ornithologists' Union and Iowa Audubon.

Every dollar raised directly supports our students, empowering them to gain real-world lab experience, develop essential research skills, and foster a deeper understanding of the species.

Join us in supporting the future of science. Your contribution makes a difference!