In early 2021 a really lovely local lady called Barbara allowed us to use an area of her nature reserve to release some of our casualties. This meant that we were able to put up enclosures to allow animals to ‘wild up’ and for us to support feed them on release. This also provided us with a brilliant opportunity to allow volunteers on site to help with their care. However, we were a little restricted as we had no toilet and no inside space for when the weather inevitably turned!
We were really lucky to receive a grant from the National Lottery which enabled us to purchase a compostable eco-toilet, a workshop to use as a ‘hub’, chairs so we could hold meetings and a generator to allow us to make a decent cup of tea while on site! With great excitement we set about ordering our supplies with our generator and eco-toilet arriving in June. Unfortunately, we weren’t so lucky with the workshop… We had entrusted our order to a local garden building company, but as time passed we realised that we had been scammed, and had lost the £1,700 deposit we had put down. Needless to say, we were absolutely heartbroken and found out that we were one of many people scammed by this company. The incident is still being looked into by the Police and Fraud Action.
However, our absolutely amazing supporters rallied and we had some really generous donations which allowed us to place a new order for a different workshop! We had to adapt our idea slightly to try and get our project up and running as soon as possible. In October, Ben Roberts Landscaping came and put up our amazing workshop!
Although this is our quieter period, we have still been able to have volunteers down to help with maintenance and use the facilities and they’ve absolutely loved them! (The addition of a hot drink during the colder months has been the favourite!!) Unfortunately, due to the spread of the Omicron variant, we haven’t held as many meetings as we would have liked to, but hope to be able to do this much more frequently in 2022!
We have, however, been able to hold a couple of little meetings! We did an owl pellet dissection afternoon which went down really well with local families. It was a bit drizzly and we had planned to be working outside so our hub really saved the day! We’ve also had a couple of coffee afternoons, which we hope to hold on a more regular basis in the summer!
Wild Things Rescue really couldn’t have done this without the support of The National Lottery and our local volunteers. So for that, we thank you!! And hope to see more of you in 2022!
