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Celebrating Our Volunteers

by Scott Pointer

Sometimes stating the obvious is the hardest thing to do. On Friday February 25th we did our best to honor and thank our dedicated volunteers by hosting a Volunteer Appreciation Event/Dinner at Mitchell Park.

The Volunteers at Wildlife Rescue are truly the backbone of our organization. From the Clinic Volunteers who come in weekly to the Home Care Volunteers who are always ready when they get a call. The Education Team also plays a vital role—educating the community over the phone, at events and by example. Without all their hard work we would not have been able to care for the 2,130 animals we took in this past year.

The hard part comes when you realize that there is no adequate way in which to say thank you, either to them individually or collectively as a group. All the time and effort that they give to WRI is truly appreciated. Their dedication and passion show in everything they do and we are all deeply grateful for the compassion and care they give the animals and for all that they do.

Each volunteer received a volunteer recognition gift—a Wildlife Rescue 6-pack insulated cooler bag. We also raffled off over 30 prizes that were donated from local community businesses.

One of the highlights of the evening was the Wildlife Rescue educational animals. Raptor team leader, Karen Hoyt was there with our Great Horned Owl, Socrates and Education Team members Valerie Baldwin, Lisa Konie and Nola Donato brought along Jet, a Red-shouldered Hawk, Kanti, an American Kestrel, and Yankee our Gopher Snake. This gave many of our volunteers the opportunity to see these great creatures up close and find out a little more about their history and our Wildlife Education Team program.

We would like to recognize some of the organizations and businesses that donated to our event. Please consider doing business with these groups and tell them thanks for donating to Wildlife Rescue, Inc.

Whole Foods – food for the event
Palo Alto Baking Co. – dessert
Target, Mountain View – donated goods
Costco, Mountain View – donated goods
Piazza’s Find Food – food for the event
Sierra Club Books – three “Living With Wildife” books
Boardwalk Pizza – gift certificate
Starbucks Coffee – gift certificate
Pizza My Heart – gift certificate
Books Inc. Mountain View – gift certificate
Pam Hartman, Deborah Pastucha, Amy Ball and Terry Keible – donated gifts