Service at Mollywood Avian Sanctuary: 3-13-16

Sunday's service outing was unique in many ways. First we decided to move our outing up by two hours to try to get home before a wind storm hit Bellingham. In addition to this, the girls had just lost an hour of sleep because of daylight savings time! With tired eyes, we gathered at Cascade Montessori Middle School. After describing the service outing and what to expect from Mollywood, we headed out to the county.

Erin playing peak-a-boo!

One GEC girl described the atmosphere at Mollywood Avian Sanctuary well when she poetically stated: “This place is its own world of sounds.” A world of sounds indeed! Imagine over 150 parrots, mostly cockatoos, squawking and screeching for your attention, and you have some idea of the audio chaos that we were fortunate to take part in last Saturday afternoon.

Louisa, Amelia, and Willow getting to know Picaba.

Mollywood was founded by Betsy and Nate Lott, whose love of the companion birds led to their unforeseen care-taking of hundreds of birds who have been abandoned, abused, or neglected by their owners. Taken from their native habitat in the jungles of Indonesia and South America, parrots are the third most popular pet in the U.S. and can be found in 17.3 million homes. 

PussPuss singing with the birds

Unfortunately most parrot owners aren’t aware of the effort and  commitment needed to effectively care for these birds, resulting in 85% of them being given away within the first 2 years (parrots can live to be 80 years old! Betsy's oldest bird, Grampa, is 73). This highlights the need for committed and compassionate people such as Betsy, who tirelessly work to provide shelter and sanctuary for these lively and lovable birds. Betsy volunteers day in and day out to care for these birds, forsaking a paying job and virtually all of her free time (she's had one vacation in the past ten years, and it took 6-8 people to fill her shoes!). She relies on other volunteers, such as the energetic hard-working Bald Eagles, to help maintain the sanctuary and ensure a healthy and hospitable environment for the birds.

The Bald Eagles really lived up to the EC mottos of Our Cups Overflow, Everyone Helps, Walk Your Talk and Get Dirty as they ambitiously and diligently cleaned out the debris and food discards from under the cages and swept up huge, heaping piles of wood pieces, bird seeds, paper scraps (parrots are by nature messy birds - it's how they help revegetate the jungle) and put them into the garbage. Imagine a room packed with 50+ birds, all talking (and screeching) at once. The girls tackled the work and managed the noise with enthusiasm and a positive attitude. Smiles and laughter were frequent as we cleaned and swept, all the while talking to the birds, who were whistling at us, calling names like "Pretty Lady! Pretty Lady!" asking "How Are You?", bouncing up and down (one bird kept whispering "I love you" to us as we cleaned its cage). Soon the girls had transformed the Barn and a room off of Betsy's house into a clean sanctuary. 

One highlight of the day was getting to meet some of the friendlier birds. The girls took turns holding some very adorable cockatoos, including Picaba, who LOVES attention and affection. 

Ruby hard at work.

We came to Mollywood committed to serving and making a small difference in the lives of these birds and their caretakers, but walked away with so much more. We truly felt the pleasure that comes from sharing our work, time, and effort with those that deserve it the most, and all were in a bit of awe at Betsy's commitment. For more information about this wonderful organization, please visit their website at: www.mollywood.org

EC Mottos especially alive today: Safety First, Walk Your Talk, Expect the Unexpected, Our Cups Overflow, LIBK, You See It You Own It, Many Hands Make Light Work, We're All Teachers, Collaborate and Compromise