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| navigate: home: magazine: fall 2002: article | |
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One-time visitor to Raptor Center leaves $725,000 legacy By Celena E. Kusch | ||||||
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Fifteen years ago, Ruth C. Morris of Philadelphia had never visited Penn State’s University Park campus, and she had never heard of the Penn State Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center. A mention of the center in an early 1990s edition of The Philadelphia Inquirer, however, led Morris to make a lasting connection with the center. This year, Morris’ estate bequeathed to Shaver’s Creek a gift of almost three-quarters of a million dollars to create an endowment for the center’s bird of prey program. “We are extremely grateful to Ruth Morris for this gift and extremely excited about the new opportunities the endowment will bring to Shaver’s Creek and our bird of prey program,” said Corky Potter, executive director of Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center. Morris became interested in the Raptor Center at Shaver’s Creek and its injured birds of prey because of her mother’s passion for birds. She visited the center in the early ’90s and was treated to a tour by Shaver’s Creek icon Frances Lewis, the first donor to create an endowment at Shaver’s Creek. Investment income from Morris’ gift, the Purnell Cantwell Endowment, will support the programming needs of the Raptor Center, which includes the conservation of these birds through education that promotes the understanding and well-being of native raptor populations. The Raptor Center at Shaver’s Creek is one of the nation’s few environmental education centers that provide permanent homes for injured and rescued birds that cannot return to the wild. Center staff members also conduct a variety of educational programs on and off site. These programs reach out to all ages and include day camps, animal adaptations programs and elderhostels. According to Potter, Morris’ gift, the largest in Shaver’s Creek history, beautifully recognizes the human connection to the natural world and honors the Morris family in a meaningful and important way that will benefit public understanding of the environment for years to come. Douglas Steigerwalt, program director of the Raptor Center and lecturer in recreation and park management, added, “We do shows across the state, interpreting birds of prey for people, but it is the birds that do the educating. They are wildlife ambassadors. Part of our mission is to help children and adults see these birds up close and continue to look for and be aware of the birds when they return to their own neighborhoods. Our goal is to serve the public by educating them about the natural environment.” Jennifer Brackbill, assistant program director, noted that the raptor programs have an impact on visitors every day. “Birds of prey have universal appeal and can capture the attention of a huge diversity of people, enabling them to make a connection with the animals,” she said. “Because our focus is on birds native to Pennsylvania, people can learn about what is in their backyard, what they might see any day. Kids come to our programs then report back to us, ‘I saw a red-tailed hawk by my school!’ We get letters and pictures from them all the time.” In addition to supporting environmental outreach programs, Morris’ gift will also allow the Raptor Center to expand its research and training efforts. The Raptor Center currently supports spring hawk watching research that measures the health of the local environment, and it is part of an international project to band and monitor Northern Saw-Whet Owls. Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center also trains undergraduates and interns in animal care, with much of the training centered on the Raptor Center’s collection of birds of prey. Several center alumni have gone on to lead programs all over the United States in state parks and other environmental centers. “Our training mission is to help youth leaders, teachers and others who want the skills and knowledge to help students become more aware of the natural world,” Potter explained. “One outcome of this endowment will be to expand our use of the Internet to develop innovative ways to deliver content and messages to larger audiences. A gift like Ruth Morris’ creates the opportunity to think about where we can go from here and how we can build infrastructure to help preserve the environment of the future.” Center leaders are just in the beginning stages of planning for the endowment, but some future plans include youth scholarships for camps, development of an animal care for credit program at Penn State, increasing destinations in off-site programs, expanding the number and variety of birds at the center and improving and upgrading existing facilities and services. | |||||
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© 2002 Outreach Communications, Outreach & Cooperative Extension, The Pennsylvania State University phone: (814) 865-8108, fax: (814) 863-2765, e-mail: outreachnews@outreach.psu.edu |
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