As 2021 draws to a close, we’d be remiss if we didn’t express our gratitude to everyone supporting our intoBirds online store on Etsy. And to everyone supporting our mission: to preserve and protect nature.
Besides writing stories about birds on this website, we share photos of our avian friends over social media channels. We also have an Etsy store to raise money for bird and wildlife organizations.
Express Our Gratitude By Giving Back
We donate 25% of every purchase of the items we sell, including dream journals, kindling cards, stickers, or vintage items from our store.
Thanks to your support, the sales of our products helped raise enough money to sponsor four injured birds of prey at Christine’s Critters. Our sponsorship pays for the bird’s annual food bill. The Weston, Connecticut-based nonprofit is run by birds of prey wildlife rehabilitator Christine Peyreigne.
This year Magma, an Eastern Screech Owl, Higgins, a Northern Saw-whet Owl, Equinox, a Peregrine Falcon, and Salsa, an American Kestrel dine on our dime.
We support Christine’s Critters’ mission to rescue, rehab, and release back to nature injured birds of prey. It takes a village of like-minded individuals working tirelessly to make this happen. We’re proud to be a small part of Christine’s Critter’s village.
Paying It Forward
Paying it forward and supporting nonprofits like Christine’s Critters is more critical than ever because of COVID.
Your support makes it possible to feed and provide veterinary care for the other 17 hungry bird education ambassadors. Plus, the hundreds of injured birds of prey receiving treatment, medical care, rehabilitation, and release throughout the year.
COVID has dramatically impacted wildlife rehabilitators, like Christine’s Critters, relying on funds from public education programs. Unfortunately, the public programs come to a stop, but the calls for caring for injured birds of prey are never-ending.
Showing Gratitude for Local Organizations
It’s essential to support organizations in your backyard, and we express our gratitude for them every day. One such organization is the Mohonk Preserve and the stunning Shawangunk Ridge in New Paltz, N.Y.
These places are the backdrops for so many of our hiking adventures. We are happy to give back and donate three dream journals (Red-tailed Hawk, White-throated Sparrow, and an Eastern Screech Owl) to the Mohonk Preserve’s Virtual 24th Annual Benefit and help raise $245.
The Wild Bird Fund, NYC’s only wildlife rehabilitation center, is open seven days a week, caring for orphaned and injured birds, birds of prey, and animals. Window strike victims arrive daily at their doorstep, reaching the thousands every day during fall migration, and they care for every bird.
We are proud to donate two dream journals (Woodcock and Snowy Owl) to the Wild Bird Fund Auction in New York City and help raise $130 for their annual event.
And we sponsor a turkey at the Woodstock Farm Sanctuary in High Falls, N.Y., for Thanksgiving.
All three organizations play a critical role in our immediate surroundings to preserve and protect nature.
Other Ways to Show Your Gratitude
Additionally, we use our Amazon accounts as part of the AmazonSmile program. Amazon donates 0.5% of the price of our eligible purchases to charities and nonprofits of our choice. So for every purchase we make, the Catskill Animal Sanctuary and Christine’s Critters benefit.
AmazonSmile costs you nothing and is a fabulous way to give back to your favorite charities and nonprofits.
If you can do one last good deed in 2021, step up and express your gratitude by supporting the organizations you care about in 2022.
Living Life By What We Give
These last two years of COVID, everything focuses on contagions and infections, so we’re grateful to those people who realize kindness is infectious, too.
A random, kind act has an immeasurable impact on its recipient. And it’s more important than ever to put the ‘human’ back in humanity.
We must heed the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, What are you doing for others?”
We’re pleased intoBirds continues to educate its followers about birds and for the many people who thank us for helping them learn something new about birds every day.
Things are Looking Up for 2022
And we’re grateful for Brad and Marlena, owners of Wild Birds Unlimited in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., for selling our dream journals in their store to raise money to help save even more birds.
Our supporters are critical to achieving our mission, and we are so grateful you’re part of this incredible journey.
So for 2022, let’s all make it a point to start each day with a positive thought. Show your gratitude for the riches you enjoy in life. Then, add it to your vision board and make it happen.
Express your gratitude to the people you are thankful for, and then we can create a gratitude movement.
And that’s something to be thankful for every day.
We wish everyone a safe, bird-filled Happy New Year!