Who is widely considered to be the most famous Brazilian after Pele?

Brazilian super model Gisele, of course!

Born and raised in the south of Brazil, Gisele Bundchen was “discovered” while visiting a shopping center in São Paulo, and subsequently moved to the US where she embarked upon a stellar career in modeling, and married football legend Tom Brady.

After her marriage, she founded the Luz Alliance Fund to support several different charitable causes, ranging from natural disaster response, to children in need, and to environmental rehabilitation.

And what’s the connection between Gisele and Iracambi?

Her world was very far from ours. She hung out with the rich and famous, and we hung out with the local community. She was the darling of the fashion world, and we were planting trees in the mountains of Minas Gerais.

Until one day our worlds met.

In July 2022 Gisele’s foundation, in partnership with the Brazil Foundation, announced that they would be supporting seven different Brazilian non-profits, all operating in the area of environmental restoration.

Each organization was chosen for its contribution to conserving biodiversity, restoring ecosystems, and promoting more sustainable ways of living, and each is located in a different biome: Amazonia, Cerrado, Pantanal, Pampa, Caatinga, Coastal biome and – the Atlantic Forest!

Guess who was chosen to represent the Atlantic Forest?

Yes, you got it. IRACAMBI!

The hummingbird and the super model working together to restore the beautiful Atlantic Forest. It doesn’t come much better!