Executive Director of Nature’s Nursery, Allison Schroeder, has teamed up with local illustrator Don Lee to create a series of books centered around real-life animal rescue stories that align with the Center’s mission to “improve the well-being of Northwest Ohio wildlife populations and habitats through public education and rehabilitation, with an emphasis on coexistence. These books are there to back up our mission to educate people on the importance of wildlife,” said Schroeder.
What is Nature’s Nursery?
Nature’s Nursery is a non-profit organization located in Whitehouse, where they provide medical care to injured, orphaned or ailing wild animals, and conduct conservation education outreach programs for children and adults.
Through community education programming, Nature’s Nursery is able to reach over 15,000 children and adults to teach the importance of local wildlife populations and their habitats, how to protect them, and how to best live with these animals in harmony.
“Animal Rescue Tails” series
There are currently two illustrated picture books within the Nature’s Nursery original series “Animal Rescue Tails.” Schroeder makes a promise of more books to come. She said she would like to incorporate other special animal cases and situations into future books.
“These books gave me the opportunity to put these situations down on paper and turn it into a book that [Nature’s Nursery] can use,” said Schroeder. “One specific animal case can tell the story of what we do for thousands of animals every year.”
The first book titled “One Special Owl” was released in 2020 and tells the true story of a baby owl that fell from its nest and depended on the help of Nature’s Nursery to heal.The Center was able to rehabilitate and release the owl back to its home with the help of the people who called for help and the local tree company who returned it to its nest.
“I wrote the first book during COVID-19,” said Schroeder, “We were looking at alternate ways to provide education as well as bring in funds for Nature’s Nursery, considering we were not able to do the typical fundraising activities or go out to schools to deliver education materials.”
There were several hundred copies of this book sold, and it raised $3,000 for the non-profit organization.
The newest book of the series, titled “One Friendly Fox,” was published earlier this year and takes a different approach on human interaction with animals in the wild.
“One Friendly Fox” focuses on Lenny The Fox, a current Education Ambassador at Nature’s Nursery. Education Ambassadors are non-releasable animals that are used for educational purposes.
Lenny was taken from the wild by humans with the hopes of keeping him as a domesticated pet; however, he was released into the wild and was not able to maintain a sustainable life on his own. This alarming situation called for the help of Nature’s Nursery.
Lenny the Fox has been in the care of Nature’s Nursery for about seven years, and once the renovations for their new location in Waterville are complete, the public will be invited to meet Lenny for the very first time.
Purchase Details
Both of the books in the Animal Rescue Tails series are available for purchase on the Nature’s Nursery website, Amazon, and some store websites such as Target and Barnes & Noble.
Once Nature’s Nursery relocates to the new Waterville location, there will be a full merchandise store with the books available for purchase.
“These books are written for children and late elementary school readers,” said Schroeder, “ but we have also had adults buy them and they love them because it is such an easy way to understand what we do.”
All proceeds contribute directly to the Animal Care Fund, which is used to buy items such as food, bedding, and medicine for the animals cared for by Nature’s Nursery.
Nature’s Nursery, 7790 Co Rd. 152, Whitehouse. 419-877-0060. natures-nursery.org
