Agilitygurl45
Registered: December 2010
Posts: 1
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For the past few year, I have volunteered at the Ohio Wildlife center. The Ohio Wildlife Center was established to rescue and rehabilitate native wildlife. Along with the rescues, the volunteers educate the public about the animals of Ohio. I decided to not only help with taking care of the animals, but to take up the job of educating the people about them. The task proved to be no only educational to myself, but life changing.
At first, I only started by taking care of the older, and simpler animals at the center. These animals were permanent residence because of ailments that would otherwise kill them in the wild. As I learned to take care of the turtles and rabbits, I was given more difficult tasks and animals to do. Before long, I became a Raptor caretaker. I began to make sure that all of the animals, including the raptors, were healthy, living in a clean environment, being fed and given the right amount of mind stimulating enrichment. These animals looked to me for these things, and I looked to them for education. A win-win situation was formed between myself and the animals.
Soon, I was soon doing programs. Programs was what I was wanting to do. I was wanting to teach the public about the animals that were being carelessly injured and forgotten. Using my own time, I reached out to the people of Ohio. I was doing programs on grounds of the Wildlife Center, and off grounds, including at schools and public events such as festivals. I often held a raptor, such as a red-tailed hawk or a Great horned owl, and answered any question the people of Ohio had. With each question, I taught the public to be more aware of the animals, and I even taught myself more about how to work with people, and how to make observations. These are things that I couldn’t have learned in a classroom, just as the public couldn’t learn about the wildlife without seeing the animal and having someone answer their questions.
With my growing confidence of doing programs, I have started to do larger programs and programs of great importance to the Wildlife center, such as programs for donations. Though these programs make a big difference for the people of Ohio and the animals, they have proved to be very important to me. With out the Ohio Wildlife Center, I don’t believe that I would have learned about the animals I love to the degree that I have. These animals have taught me more about my self than any teacher could have accomplished. The Ohio Wildlife center has taught me how to make observations, and what it is that I really want to go to school for. Thanks to my volunteering, I have not only helped Animals and the public, but I have decided to go to Montana State University for Organismal Biology.
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