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Saturday saw two Virginia nonprofits working together in Suffolk to preserve local wildlife.

The Wes Strong Foundation and Nature’s Nanny Wildlife Rehabilitation Center joined on Saturday, Aug. 24 and Sunday, Aug. 25, to build two 12-foot by 16-foot enclosures at O’Kelly Dr to help rehabilitate owls, hawks and other needy animals. 

The Wes Strong Foundation, created in honor of 12-year-old Wes Pak who battled neuroblastoma cancer before his passing, aims to continue helping families facing pediatric cancer as well as saving wildlife, a passion of Pak. The Foundation has two pillars, the Pediatric Cancer Warriors and the Wildlife Warriors, which help children battling cancer and wildlife. Nature’s Nanny Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, led by President Dana Lusher, serves as wildlife rehabilitator, helping injured birds and other animals. In a Saturday, Aug. 24 interview, Wes Strong Foundation Wildlife Warrior Supervisor Kristy Spurgeon and Nature’s Nanny Wildlife Rehabilitation Center Vice President Rodney Lusher each discussed their work. Supporting wildlife rehabilitators in their area, Spurgeon discussed carrying on Pak’s legacy and love for animals.

“He wanted to make sure that his work would not stop with his passing, and so his mom and dad and family created the Wes Strong Foundation…As part of the Wildlife Warriors, we assist the Virginia permitted Wildlife Rehabilitators. We currently assist probably two dozen of them in southeastern Virginia. We help with getting them donations, we also help [facilitate] projects that they need so they can succeed with what they have to do,” Spurgeon said.

Spurgeon discussed the need for more funding that wildlife rehabilitators receive.

“They receive no funding from the state or federal, they have to pay for everything that’s involved with the care of the animals as well as all the supplies that they use, and we usually will put up GoFundMes on the Wes Strong Foundation as well as I’ll post them in the different areas where the rehabilitators are located with their specific needs,” she said. “And together, we’ve already helped thousands upon thousands of injured babies that have come through the doors just this year alone.”

Lusher discussed Nature’s Nanny’s work of bringing in birds, usually from Tidewater Wildlife Rescue, and determining what assistance they need from themselves.

“…if they need more than we can do, then we would take them to a vet or determine what kind of vet,” Lusher said. “We have an eye doctor that we use – a lot of them get eye injuries, that’s really common. If they’ve got broken bones, that’s a whole ‘nother world and we’ll take them to, you know, just a regular veterinarian that does wildlife,” Lusher said.

Noting birds that cannot be saved, Lusher detailed letting the veterinarian call on those who must be euthanized. For those that can be saved, however, Lusher discussed putting the birds on a daily recovery program involving feeding, cleaning, exercising and eating on their own until they are ready to fly back into the world again. Lusher discussed the bird rehabilitation enclosures they were building, noting that the Boy Scouts of America helped build one of their enclosures.

“They bought the materials, come in and put it up, which was great. And that one’s set for a year. And we got another bunch of volunteers and they came and built this one and now, that one’s set for a year,” he said.

With volunteers helping to build another enclosure during the interview, Spurgeon says they hope to finish the enclosures to move forward with the flight pens.

“So we’re going to finish up the different enclosures and then do the flight pens. That way, the wildlife rehabilitators have this resource here instead of having to go three hours all the way up to the Virginia Wildlife Center, which sometimes, especially when you are dealing with lead poison, it can mean the difference between life and death for some of the animals that are exposed to it.”

Both expressed that volunteers are critical to making everything happen in their work, noting that they need help with their upcoming Fall Baby Wildlife Donation Drive next month. One of their volunteers, 66-year-old Jack Shaver, is a former Newport News firefighter. Shaver has suffered from basal cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer since he was 16. 

“It then went away, but came back,” Shaver said, with Spurgeon noting this occurred in January of this year.

Spurgeon says that those looking to help Shaver can do so by donating meals. He prefers pasta and soft foods like waffles, pudding, Jello, applesauce, and chocolate protein shakes. Along with his 3-year-old dog Daisy and three ferrets, Peaches, Cream, and Chi-Chi, who help him move forward, Shaver says it’s been “good” working with both Spurgeon and Lusher in their wildlife rehabilitation efforts.

“Happy tears,” said an emotional Shaver. “She helped me with a lot.”

For more information on becoming a volunteer or to make a donation, go to wesstrong.org and naturesnannywildliferehab.org, or text 757-344-8953 and call/text 757-714-5093, respectively.