In the first months of 2021, I was planning our year, finishing our maintenance schedule and prepping Humboldt Wildlife Care Center for another hectic wild baby season. And then in May, I was diagnosed with cancer. I still hate to say it, but it’s true, cancer. Well, you know, it’s certainly not what you want the doctor to say after the biopsy, but the diagnosis sets something in motion that keeps on under its own steam. A lot was uncertain after that diagnosis, but one thing was obvious – my season at HWCC was going to be a lot different than I thought.
Emergency wildlife response has taught me so many things, invaluable things, things that I use in life over and over – and the one thing above all else that I’ve learned is that a committed crew of passionate people can accomplish so much more than can be imagined. I knew that we’d survive, here at HWCC/bax, even if I didn’t – a worst case scenario that I was not yet sure had been ruled out. I knew that our staff would struggle without me, I am not superfluous, I hope, but I knew that a way forward would be found, just as we’ve met every other challenge, hardened as we are by our long passages without volunteers due to the pandemic. The talented and committed staff as well as the crucial interns and volunteers of Humboldt Wildlife Care Center has my gratitude in perpetua and for ever and a day.
Lucinda Adamson, Desiree Vang, Nora Chatmon, Brooke Brown, Jen Martin operated our daily wildlife hospital during the busiest part of our busiest year – it so happened that I was hospitalized for three weeks – three weeks that coincide with our busiest three weeks of the year – mid-June to early July. And for all that they have done to support me too during this time – by doing their work so excellently – they are a critical part of my recovery. I am so proud to know them, and grateful for what they give they world.
It so happened that my diagnosis in May coincided with the great honor we enjoyed of being the non-profit for the North coast Co-op’s awesome Seeds For Change program. Being selected by co-op members for this incredible benefit was already a wonderful encouragement and the money that was raised came at a time when we were in a more precarious position than we usually are in Mid June. The community support from this ended up not only supporting our wildlife hospital during our busiest time, already a boost to our season like we’ve never before had, but when I saw the check in the HWCC mail that was being brought to me in the hospital, I can’t measure the boost to my morale and therefore my recovery that it was. Suffice to say seeing that check at a time when my own ability to do the normal day to day fundraising that I do to keep our facility going – I knew we were covered at least until I was out of the hospital – that was a relief that quite literally still makes me feel kind of very weepy. So Co-op, co-op members, and everyone who rounded up in the month of May, the difference you made for wildlife in Humboldt County may be more than we’ll ever know. Thank you for being there for us.
Right before I went in the hospital, we set up some online fundraising and we appealed to our past and current supporters and we appealed to our friends in the wider wildlife rehabiltation community. The response was extremely generous – donations online and donations by mail from here and near, and far and away. It wasn’t money you were sending. It was raccoon formula; it was mealworms; it was crickets; it was frozen smelt; it was frozen rats. It was our rent and our utilities and the meager salary we can afford to pay. If we are a ship, you are both our store of supplies and what keeps our boards tight. We float and more we sail becuase of the vessel, crew, and equipment and all of the costs of our mission your support provides. I mean this as sincerely as I’ve ever meant anything in my life when I say that writing thank you notes for your support over the course of this Summer, something I ordinarily enjoy, was a very uplifting way to spend my time in recovery. Feeling the magnitude of your love for wildlife and your support of our work filled me with both joy and determination. Those are very useful things to experience let me tell you. So many beautiful kinds of support came to the rescue of HWCC and that also rescued me. What can I say, but thanks for making this last day of 2021 a possibilty for me. I had my doubts along the way, but none of you did.
Like everyone I think, I hate facebook. I say so on facebook regularly. I think to leave it all the time, and go “back” to some other kind of friendship “in real life” – but the simple fact is that the people who support our work on social media make us feel good. We like when people like us – one year we were nonprofit of the year! Do you know what a lift something like that can be when you spend your day dealing with the trauma of wounded wildlife? It’s a remarkable thing, and besides for the increased attention which increases the resources for our needs which means real advancement in the quality of care we’ve been able to provide over the last decade, which is what we work for everyday, and what we continue to strive toward, but the support of our friends, both organizationally, and for me personally, was a very important part of empowering us to do our work, to feel supported helps change the odds. Knowing people are as committed to good outcomes for wildlife, for a beautiful relationship with Mother Earth, feel the sorrow of orphaned opossums, and rejoice in a Pelican’s release – laying in a hospital bed feeling that support and having the well wishes of so many was a kind of support that I can’t quantify as easily as hours worked and checks deposited – I don’t think anyone can – the power of your goodwill – it lifed my spirits and I am quite certain that I do better work with my spirits lifted. I am quite certain that your support makes me do better than I would alone. Because of modern technology, I had this support available to me all day long every day. It was given freely across many different platforms and among many different groups of people “that you know on the internet” – this community, a digital community, did a lot of the work of helping me keep my eye on the ball all Summer long and my success at recovering so far has been partly your fault. Thank you my friends around the world who love wildlife and helped me along the way. The beauty of this community was shown to me in a way that I will never be able to deny. You’re a part of real life here. You really helped us out this year. And in the hours of the day when I was alone, you were there whenever I needed you.
The hours of the day when I was not alone was because my beloved partner, wife and fellow co-founder of Bird Ally X, Laura Corsiglia was by my side. When she wasn’t it was either past visiting hours (hospitalization fortunately timed: I avoided the stricter pandemic protocols that soon followed with the Delta variant) or she was on a mission for the Care Center. Laura provided a kind of support for me and the clinic simultaneously that of course filled me with relief, and happiness, and deep admiration and also, to be the recipient of the depth and breadth of her care and concern for me, and for our projects that we share such as the Care Center – I know the value of what she does for HWCC/bax (releases, rescues, photographs, graphic design, planning, administrative oh the list is long!) but going through this Summer of cancer and surgeries without her – I don’t see how I might have done it. She is the reason I got treatment in the first place and she was with me holding me up every step up the way, sometimes simply carrying me to the next place I could rest. The support that provides me is eternal and obvious and the support it provides HWCC and all of our patients is incalculable but apparent every day that we open. She’s brilliant and I love her so much.
To everyone who continues to support our work and will, thank you! You make our ship float. You provide the means for our mission.
Here’s to a very happy and increasingly healthy New Year! Thank you for the one thousand six hundred and twelve individual wild lives we were able to admit at HWCC in 2021. May 2022 be better for us all, and may all that we wish to preserve remain.
Thank you for all you do.
Monte Merrick
