It’s a time of year where generosity isn’t only heralded, but the norm.
However this year, at Sandy Pines Wildlife Centre in Napanee, the donations have dipped rather significantly, and now they’re asking for help.
“I was looking at the statistics on our CanadaHelps page, which is where we get the majority of our donations in through, and they were down by about 50 percent,” said Leah Birmingham, the centre’s Medical Director.
Birmingham said it was alarming to say the least.
More concerning is the fact that similar wildlife non-profits are vastly outperforming Sandy Pines in terms of donations.
CanadaHelps is a website dedicated to collecting donations for numerous Canadian charities.
Since 2017, operating costs at Sandy Pines have only gone up and that means more donations are needed.
“Spring and Summer are very busy seasons for us but now every year, as Sandy Pines has grown, Winter is still busy as well,” added Birmingham.
She said there are approximately 100 patients at the centre right now from waterfowl to amphibians, small and large mammals, all of which add up in bills.
Birmingham said it costs approximately $60,000 a month to run the facility and that donations have fallen to roughly $10,000 per month, a serious shortfall.
“We don’t get any government funding. Grants are highly competitive and very difficult to get other than for our education program, so we definitely need help to be able to continue to help wildlife,” added Birmingham.
Even on Sunday, when most people are relaxing, the staff at Sandy Pines were taking in a Barred Owl with a broken wing.
Donations can be made to Sandy Pines through CanadaHelps.
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