Sharing the fun!

When you run a small wildlife rescue operation there is always so much to do! I, however, could never do it all by myself! I'd love to do each task otherwise I wouldn't be in this field of work, but it's just not physically (or mentally!) possible. When I first started in 1995 I had a hard enough time just leaving things be after a volunteer completed a task. As a graphic designer by trade, who was particularly fond of mechanical design, I had to learn NOT to redo everything anyone else did! The so-called mechanical designer in me would wince every time something wasn't straight, whether it was a square pan of fish laid on the ground or a handwritten sign! Enough was enough, I finally decided. Stop redoing everything anyone does for you!!! You're missing the point! Learn to share! This is what I said to myself one day after muttering under my breath when I found something askew!

Little by little I did learn to share. I learned that it was OK just the way it was. It may not have been perfect in my "mechanical designer" eyes, but then again...I'm not a mechanical designer anymore, am I?! When I finally "let go" it was a huge relief. I started to give others tasks and I wasn't compulsive about how it was done. No doubt I adore those that follow my direction (preciously is even better!) but am grateful to those who are giving of themselves just to help me help the wildlife. I'm not trying to sound superior, but rather am trying to acknowledge MY own imperfection.

So, that being said I mentioned how much there is to do around the Marathon Wild Bird Center. This weekend I was able to stand back, so to speak, and watch as some of my volunteers did some of the tasks I would have done myself...had I not been nine months pregnant! Of special note is our volunteer Cathy Close. Cathy came to us right after we flooded from Hurricane Wilma in 2005. Cathy is the manager of Long Key State Park which is located about 18 miles north of us. She showed up at the bird center one day, when we were still digging out from the nasty, smelling debris that rode in on the waves of Wilma, and told me to "put her to work". As a manager who lived where she worked she was tired of telling people what to do and simply wanted someone else to tell HER what to do. No problem! I sent her to retrieve literally a pallet of seed a local hardware store had donated to us that we had to store somewhere else until we could prepare a clean, dry spot in our storage area for it. Cathy spent all day hauling 22 lb. bags of bird seed, pretty much by herself, and came back to help another day. In other words, this meaningless task was so refreshing to her (she didn't have to think or give commands, she just had to do!) that she was hooked and we had not only a new volunteer, but I had a new friend!

A few months ago we were asked to participate in the 12th Annual Florida Keys Birding & Wildlife Festival. I've participated ever year since it originated. However, due to the watermelon in my belly, I opted just to have "a" volunteer do a photographic presentation on wild birds and would skip setting up a booth at the environmental family fair like we always did. I made a phone call to the volunteer that had done the presentation last year, just to learn she was going to be out of town all this month. Who, then, could do the talk? Cathy came to mind. Ever since she began volunteering for us her passion for photographing birds had been re-ignited. She has been helping me for the last year to create graphics around the center so that the visiting public would know who are educational birds are and why they're here. Cathy jumped at the chance to do a presentation. Only one itsy bitsy problem. She had never "used" her computer to create a presentation. She was old school -- like slide projector old school! No worries! Together we worked out the basics of her "show" and with a little help from another friend and her brother she taught herself how to use "Keynote", a presentation software on her Mac computer. A dry run a few weeks later at Crane Point and Cathy was ready!

This afternoon was the big day! Unfortunately the festival this year was not well attended, but about 7 people, including myself, sat in the museum's orientation theater and oohed and ahhed over Cathy's bird photography. Though she has nerves of steel I'm sure putting her "own work" up on a large format screen was a tad nerve wracking, but her sense of humor led the way. After the presentation everyone told Cathy that her pictures were fabulous (they were!) and that her stories -- she had one for just about every photo! -- were fascinating! It was great and even though "I could have done it myself" it was a heck of a lot more fun to "share"!