Flight Center clean up

The Bird TLC flight center was built in 1990 by some very dedicated volunteers. Money to purchase the material came from the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Disaster. Over the years hundreds of birds have recovered and gained their flight strength back so they could be released to the wild.  It's not open to the general public, but it has been visited by many celebrities like Alex Trebek, Olivia Newton-John, Jeff Corwin and several others.

 

In recent years with the economy not at its best, the budget for maintaining the flight center had been cut over and over, until serious attention had to be made for the safety of the occupants, the birds. Every year at our auction, a cash call out is done. Your reward for this bid is the satisfaction that you helped Bird TLC in some way. In years past, much needed equipment had been purchased from the funds raised. This year the Bird TLC Board of Directors decided that the cash call was for the flight center. $10K was raised for supplies and material for the flight center clean-up and repair. It brought tears to my eyes.

 

Not long after, Heather Merewood, Bird TLC Executive Director was contacted by BP Alaska. They would like to help with a 2 day project with 15 of their employee's. The flight center is what came to mind first.

With the help of Home Depot, Heather and I went shopping for supplies. Five large carts and a stressed out credit card later, we were filling up the pick-up truck. What fun we had getting what we needed to get our flight center back into tip top shape.

When the BP employee's came out to work, they jumped right in and worked hard for the whole time they were there. Pressure washing the walls, hanging new tarps (for easy cleaning), removal of old perches, cutting and raking the grass, and much, much more.

Holes were repaired in the netting. The netting will be replaced as soon as the new netting arrives. Painting of the exterior will be done when weather permits. The astro turf will be replaced also. The industrial strength astro turf we require is on backorder at our supplier.

The BP crew was much larger, but these guys and gals are the ones at the end of the second work day. Some of the flight center occupants are in the background. All of the BP Alaska employee's did a fantastic job and all of us at Bird TLC appreciate their help and support.

 

Also, thanks to everyone who donated at the cash call out at the auction in April. If you would still like to donate, go here and say it's for the flight center.

 

For more photographs, click here for our Smugmug page or  go to our Facebook page here.