Nine Years, Many Fears Conquered

By Ceci Ellis

Liberty Wildlife just ran a Volunteer Spotlight on me, and re-reading it made me laugh at how far I’ve come! Nine years ago I started volunteering there, hoping to conquer a lifelong fear of birds, an irrational fear for which I squarely place the blame on Alfred Hitchcock. Gradually learning about them, caused that fear to not just fade, but also took the fear of reptiles, insects, and arachnids down with it.

Me with the first bird I ever held. His name was Acoma and he was awesome. I thought they would start me on a little bird, but nope, the first bird I ever held was a big ole’ red-tailed hawk!!

Laura H. from Liberty emailed last Tuesday asking for a photo and a quote. She's been spotlighting volunteers from different departments on social media and wanted to know if I'd be interested. I sent over a quote about why I volunteer, then spent a few days wondering if it what I said was good enough. Laura told me it was a good message. But I still felt a little awkward seeing it go live; I'm used to being behind the camera at Liberty, not in front of it.

Liberty's post has the actual quote and photo, up on both Facebook and Instagram:

Read the Facebook post →
Read the Instagram post →

And if any of this makes you curious about volunteering with wildlife yourself, Liberty Wildlife 's always looking for more hands, conquering your fear of any animal is not required, but will probably happen anyway.

Click here to learn more about volunteering at Liberty Wildlife. If you are not in the Phoenix area, you can google wildlife rescues in your area.