Ah, December, the season of giving is upon us. This may surprise you, but I am NOT going to ask you for anything. Rather, I would like to extend thanks a group of people who give every day of the year.

Thank you to our volunteers.

They get nothing but the occasional verbal acknowledgement from our small Liberty Wildlife staff, the silent but appreciative gazes all of the animals that we care for in the year, and the unseen gratitude of citizens who bring animals here for help.

Our volunteers are dedicated people who come to us, most with no direct prior experience with wildlife, and allow themselves to be trained to initially do some seemingly thankless jobs… They start with cleaning enclosures, chopping up food, counting out mealworms, defrosting fish, handling animals that aren’t always happy to be handled, and the great many tasks related to caring for injured, orphaned, and ill wild animals. Now that is dedication. That is giving. That is selflessness. And to us at Liberty Wildlife, that is as good as gold.

And, it’s a daily occurrence — every single day of the year dozens of volunteers arrive at Liberty Wildlife to handle their assigned duties. Once those volunteers have acquired a little experience, they can move into other areas… (some, that are maybe a little less unappealing). They can move into areas where a real relationship with animals is afforded. But even at that point, there are a lot of do’s and don’ts that must be attended to. Consistency isn’t always fun, but it is needed. Rules apply here as well.

What this group of selfless individuals gets from their efforts, is a feeling of helping, of giving back, of making a difference, and knowing that their donation of sweat, energy, and expertize is the life blood of our organization…that they are working with like-minded folks to preserve and protect precious wild animals.

As the executive director of a non-profit organization, I would find it to be cost-prohibitive to hire that many people (even at minimum wage) to perform the duties needed to be as successful as we are. It wouldn’t be possible to help as many animals as we do, or to provide as much educational programming. Our numbers in these categories are off the charts. Thanks to our volunteers. We are very successful, only because we have such great and generous volunteers.

In our last Annual Report, we summed these labors of love into a measurable statistic: a whopping $2,267,544.00 worth of volunteer hours.

That number is based on the total number of hours donated by volunteers last year, calculated at the Independent Sector’s current average value of donated time. Annually the Independent Sector assesses the value of volunteer time, with this year’s hourly donation equivalent of $29.95.

Just consider: this total is almost twice the income of our unrestricted dollar donations! And it is nearly $1,300,000 over our expense budget. Just imagine how much our programs would be restricted (how many wildlife we would NOT be able to treat) if we didn’t have the valuable donation of time made by these hundreds of amazing volunteers.

Hat’s off to all of you who give back to nature, to wildlife, and to all of us who would be devastated without it.

Thank you for the sweat through the summer, through the dealing with natures’ challenging pests, through the loss of sleep when early morning duties call, through the valuable donation of your expertise and your good humor.

We couldn’t do this without you! Join me in sending out a heartfelt thank you from all of us who appreciate all that you do.

You too can become a volunteer for Liberty Wildlife. Sign up today!