As my second week of this fellowship comes to a close, I am overwhelmed with admiration of the volunteers that make Ohio Wildlife Center function. All of the wildlife camp counselors, most of the education staff, and the animal care staff in the Wildlife Hospital and Education Center are all volunteers that care about Ohio’s wildlife and the center’s mission. This is a small organization and it would not be successful without the amazing work and dedication the volunteers bring every day.

Another person that I have come to greatly admire since my first day is one of the veterinary technicians that runs the Wildlife Hospital, Becky Drown. The Wildlife Hospital is incredibly small and in the basement of a companion animal vet’s office. With rooms and cages of wild animals being cared for by hospital staff and constant new admissions being brought in by the public, Becky handles the chaos of the hospital with grace and calmness as she makes sure each animal receives the care it needs either from her or the hospital volunteers. She explains everything in great detail so that everyone can be successful. The Wildlife Hospital takes in over 5,000 animals every year, many which are orphaned baby animals that need round-the-clock care. Many volunteers spend hours at the hospital, and even take some of the animals to their home to continue caring for them after-hours. Here is Becky pictured examining a fox kit patient that was brought into the Wildlife Hospital.

Also under the theme of admiration, I was able to attend a fundraiser on Thursday this week where all of the money raised was donated to Ohio Wildlife Center. The generosity of the community was humbling because the work that is done here would not get done without the generous donations of the community.

When our fellowship cohort met this week, I had a hard time connecting a lot of the lessons to my experience this summer as Ohio Wildlife Center has an animal focused mission. But after talking about leadership and what makes a good leader, I see many of those traits in the staff and volunteers here. They are selfless, helpful and welcoming. They care for themselves, the animals, and colleagues during tough times and decisions and I am very thankful to be working for this organization for the summer.

Here are a few (very cute) pictures I captured this week: