Mark your calendars and fluff your feathers—the Annual RAPTOR 5K Run, presented by Wild Birds Unlimited – Cincinnati, is just around the corner! We’re especially excited to have Wild Birds Unlimited – Cincinnati as our Presenting Sponsor this year. You may know this annual event fuels our mission, with proceeds supporting our RAPTOR Hospital, aiding bird recovery, and enhancing community education. Why We Run (and Why We Need You) Every dollar raised from the RAPTOR 5K goes straight to the heart of our mission: rescuing, rehabilitating, and releasing orphaned, injured, and sick raptors right here in the Midwest. And let me tell you, the cost of care is not chicken feed. Our food bill alone soars into many tens of thousands each year. That’s a lot of mice, rats, and quail—enough to make any red-tailed hawk’s stomach rumble louder than a thunderstorm at Riverbend. Take a current “long-haul” patient as an example: a red-tailed hawk who flew over a flare stack at a chemical plant. A flare stack is essentially a large burner that burns off waste gases from manufacturing processes. Our bird suffered burns and singed feathers. It’s been a RAPTOR patient for months. After critical weeks in our ICU, he’s now in a rehab mew, working on a comeback. But there won’t be a return to nature until those burned feathers grow back. Progress takes months. And a whole lot of food. And medicine. And TLC. It’s a marathon (not a 5K RAPTOR Run😊). Your sponsorship helps us go the distance. DETAILS: https://www.raptorinc.org/news/current-happenings/ (fb)

Please help us welcome Will Schaust as a new employee at RAPTOR Inc. and Director of Education! Will brings a wide range of experience from his 15+ year career working for both state and municipal park agencies, with a focus on connecting people with the natural world around them. We can safely say he's loved raptors since he was a kid! Will comes to us after managing the Eagle Creek Ornithology Center at Eagle Creek Park - Indy Parks and Recreation, where he achieved a childhood dream of working with raptors and doing educational programs for thousands of park visitors annually. His efforts have also garnered the attention of his peers, earning him the Monarch Award for Outstanding Seasonal Naturalist with Indiana State Parks and the Outstanding New Interpreter Award with the National Association for Interpretation - Great Lakes Region. We are excited to see what Will can bring to our organization! Outside of work, Will enjoys spending time with his wife and dog, completing carpentry projects, birding, camping, hiking, and cooking. He is excited to get to know the greater Cincinnati area and explore all that it has to offer. #RAPTORInc #Cincinnati #ConservationEducation #Conservation #WildlifeRescue #BirdsofPrey #CommunityEngagement (fb)