Tuesday, August 10, 2021
We came to Antigo, WI for a new adventure. Sunday evening we met with 29 other individuals for the opening meeting of our A Year To Volunteer (Y2V) two week project. All but two couples were newbies along with us. Y2V is a relatively new organization founded by Phil and Shar Roos as a means to provide volunteer opportunities for people. To date, their primary work has been with state parks and a few other non-profits, helping with maintenance, repairs and the like. Phil and Shar have a passion for our underserved and underfunded state parks. Most of us RVers love our state parks and realize how much help they need. Y2V is incorporated as a non-profit and have filed for their 501(c)(3) status and are just waiting for the IRS to do their part of the paperwork. Phil and Shar began with a vision of volunteering 365 days and in all 50 states as a way of being productive as they began their retirement. They invited a few people to join them in their first volunteer effort and things have grown from there. We all had fun visiting and beginning to get to know each other Sunday night. Monday morning we began to get to know the staff at REGI, Raptor Education Group, Inc, a 501(c)(3) dedicated to caring for injured and orphaned native bird species and public education on wildlife issues. Our team will be working on landscaping, building a passerine enclosure for native song birds that are being cared for at the facility and hopefully rehabilitated for release back into the wild, building a new storage shed, rehabilitating three gazebos used for various birds, painting some signs, pressure washing as needed and of course anything else that comes up that needs work. Phil and Shar have been a joy to get to know and hopefully we will know them even better over the next 2 weeks. As is usual, Monday was a day for familiarization and organization, learning our way around the raptor center. We did start working on the landscaping.
Tuesday morning was our turn to take the tour of the facility with educators and some real visitors of the facility. Everyone will get to take the tour over the next few days. We got to visit with some of the birds up close and learn more about the different species that are being cared for by the dedicated staff. While we were waiting for our tour someone brought in a very tiny bird in need of care. We were told that the baby bird would need to be fed some protein every 15 minutes over the next several days if it is to survive. The staff will rotate caring for the bird all night tonight. We finished the day preparing to rough in some wiring for the new passerine enclosure.
RVing With a Purpose 