International Crane Foundation Co-Founder  To Speak at Funk’s Crepes & Cranes

PRESS RELEASE

February 2, 2026

For immediate release

For more information about Visit 37, contact Kristine Jacobson at visitphelpscounty@gmail.com. 

For information about the Funk School Community Center and the Crepes and Cranes event, contact Mona Peterson at mpeterso77@gmail.com.

With courtesy photo of George Achibald

International Crane Foundation Co-Founder 
To Speak at Funk’s Crepes & Cranes

FUNK –  The co-founder of the International Crane Foundation, Dr. George Archibald, will be the featured speaker at the third annual Crepes & Cranes event at the Funk School Community Center.

The event will be from 8:30-10:30 a.m. Saturday, March 14, with Archibald speaking at 9:45 a.m. A breakfast of crepes (aka pancakes) will be served. The admission fee is $10 per person, which includes breakfast and the program. 

Guests can also view the Michael Forsberg Funk WPA Gallery’s newest rotating exhibit, featuring photography by Todd Rundstrom of Kearney.

Archibald co-founded the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, Wisc., in the spring of 1973, along with Dr. Ronald Sauey, as a global center to study and conserve cranes and protect the habitats and flyways they need to survive.  

One of Dr. Archibald’s first projects in North America was to save the endangered Whooping Crane, which was on the brink of extinction. Whopping Cranes now stop to rest at the Funk Waterfowl Production area each spring.

Dr. Archibald served as the president of the foundation for 27 years. In 2000, he stepped down as president but has continued his full-time work to help raise the funds needed to fulfill the foundation’s mission, while also supporting the many global programs he started. His current focus involves work in Azerbaijan, Bhutan, Cuba, China, Pakistan, South Korea, and Russia. 

Dr. Archibald has always used the charisma of cranes to help unite people from diverse cultures and countries to work together to preserve habitats necessary for the survival of both cranes and people.

For more than 50 years, his visionary leadership and determined optimism have supported integrated programs to conserve all 15 species of cranes worldwide. He envisioned programs developed and implemented using a creative combination of field research, public education, habitat protection, captive propagation, reintroduction, and partnership with local communities living near the cranes.   

Dr. Archibald received his undergraduate degree from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1968, and completed his Ph.D. at Cornell University in 1977. In recognition of his accomplishments, he has received four honorary doctorates and many awards, including the Gold Medal from the World Wildlife Fund, a Fellow's Award from the MacArthur Foundation, the Wildlife Conservation Medal from the Zoological Society of San Diego, the Lilly Medal presented by the Indianapolis Zoo, and the Douglas H. Pimlott Award from Nature Canada. 

Other activities at the FSCC that day will include the annual Trivia Night featuring Askin’ Nebraskan. To pre-register for the trivia night ($150 per team of 8), visit the website at funkschoolcc.com. 

The Funk School Community Center is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the Funk School as a place where the community can come together. Proceeds from Crepes and Cranes will help fund continued operations and events at the school.

For more information about the Funk School Community Center or Crepes & Cranes, visit the website at funkschoolcc.com or contact board president Mona Peterson at (308) 991-2895 or funkschoolcommunitycenter@gmail.com.