We quickly discovered that "helping"the birds doesn't mean grabbing a hand full of eagle, taking its temperature, weighing it and putting it back in a nice comfortable cage...in other words, the "glamour" part of handling raptors. We discovered it also encompasses several specific "disciplines"....it also means kennel scrubbing, mew cleaning, carpet cleaning, disinfecting, bleaching, swabbing (that's mopping for you non-navy types), toting, lifting, hammering, stuffing envelopes, making coffee, greeting visitors, selling stuff from the gift shop, building cages, doin' stuff on the computer and, well, you can fill the blanks for here I'm sure. It's easy to see that this all leads up to one thing...Release!

The release of an eagle (or duck, for that matter) back into the wild makes it all worthwhile and does give pause to reflect that it takes all of the afore-mentioned (one of my cousins is a lawyer) stuff to get to this point. I don't like to give advise but, if I did, I'd tell any prospective, or active, volunteer to relax, enjoy, contribute any talent you have and never lose sight of The Release: everything and anything you can contribute makes that possible.

since it is not my style to be too serious or maudlin I would also like to provide for your consideration that volunteerin' is also mixing and mingling, cooking, eating, sightseeing, flightseeing, otter cruising, fishing, partying with folks you don't even know, sunset watching from Harbor Mountain, reflecting on and basking in the sheer beauty of this place; walking in the rain.....(how else would you ever get anywhere in Sitka?)....giving in to that impulse to play hooky just once on one of those glorious sunny days in Sitka, sharing and laughing, and a tee-niney bit of arguin' and discussin'! If you're not having a good time, you're doing it wrong!!!!!

Al & Rena Agnew
Mullins, South Carolina

Four years ago, Buddy (one of the ARRC's education eagles) visited my school in Las Vegas where I was teaching third grade..Our students crowded into the multi-purpose room to see this magnificent eagle and silently watched him, mesmerized by his presence. My students wrote the most wonderful stories, poetry and narrative about their experience with Buddy that day we were so lucky to have had.

This summer, all the pieces fell together and I was able to make my way here to volunteer at ARRC. I was welcomed so warmly into the ARRC family and I hope that in some small way I am helping these wild creatures who have been injured by man's presence.

I will be taking all of these experiences here back to my students this fall in the hope that I can share the knowledge so they will have a better understanding of nature's creatures and our obligation to them.

Diane Smith
Las Vegas Nevada