how it started

From our Founder

Dear Friends:

The events of 2020 led me to form the organization and revive a long-buried dream. I don’t really need to tell you that 2021 has been a challenging year. However, thanks to your support, Acorn Acres Wildlife Rehabilitation had the resources to help our native wildlife return to their lives in the wild.

Acorn Acres opened its doors to accept wildlife on April 4, 2021, accepting 158 animals, since that day, in various forms of need. What started as a rehabilitator, 2 sub-permittees, and a board of directors rapidly grew to include 12 part-time or seasonal volunteers.

The plan was to develop the processes and procedures, build the Intermediate Housing Area and Release Caging, implement volunteer management software and proper phone system, and to slowly and methodically start building the volunteer team. Participating in the ExtraOrdinary Give was a distant goal and we were prepared to not participate until 2022 or 2023.

Everything was going as planned albeit quickly and then the Fall season of babies beat us up. The hurricane took us to 3 times our capacity in less than 24 hours. We suddenly needed volunteers and an additional 10 hours in each day! We needed to be in ExtraOrdinary Give this year and we needed more cages.

We were contacted by SCORE and informed that we were their success story for October, we joined our community as a participant in the Millersville Community Parade, were honored with a request to speak at the Red Creek Wildlife Center 30^th Year Gala on how they helped us come to be, and then ExtraOrdinary Give when the community truly rallied and showed their support in spades.

All the while we had the distinct privilege of caring for the little wild lives you brought to us. Please enjoy this video as a 4-minute review of the last 9 months!

May 2022 be everything we all want it to be. Happy New Year!

With Sincere Gratitude,

Betsy D. Shank, CWR

Founder & Executive Director