A rescued female Cayman parrot will taste freedom on Saturday, 4 Nov., thanks to the fundraising efforts of middle-school students at the Cayman International School.
The juvenile parrot is set to be released into the wild after being rehabilitated over the last year using $1,583 raised by the students as part of their civics course.
The release, the first to be done publicly at the Cayman Parrot Sanctuary in East End, is set for 2pm.
Andie Urquhart, CIS Middle School counsellor, said the students are quite excited for the release as they have been waiting to meet the parrot which has been nursed back to health through their sponsorship.
“The kids love to help in the community and make connections with organisations they are passionate about,” she said.
Urquhart said the students raised the funds during one of their dress-down days last year and chose the Cayman Parrot Sanctuary as the recipient for November.
Rewarding effort
The initiative, she said, commenced three years ago when the CIS middle school student leadership council began inviting the dress-down Civvies Day recipients to the school assemblies.
She said this was “so that we could learn a bit about the organisation and how our ‘tweenagers’ could help, rather than simply giving a monetary donation”.
The initiative, she said, has been successful in encouraging community service.
Students, Urquhart said, have been participating in food drives, helping to organise the pantry for Meals on Wheels, and volunteering at the Humane Society, among other initiatives.
Urquhart said she wants Cayman’s kids to know that “you are the future and the world needs caring, kind and productive humans like you! We are here to provide opportunities and experiences that will allow our youth to develop these positive character traits so they can go out into the world and make a positive impact.”
Lana Hargrave, who co-founded the Cayman Parrot Sanctuary with her husband Ron Hargrave, owner of Tukka Restaurant, said she was pleased to be part of the initiative.
“I think it’s amazing. We have four young kids so that’s one reason why we did this parrot sanctuary, just to raise awareness about the animals and about the native animals of the Cayman Islands and how important it is to keep their habitats,” she said.
Second chances
Hargrave said since the sanctuary opened in 2019, 34 parrots have been rehabilitated and returned to the wild.
The parrot that will be released Saturday, Hargrave said, was confiscated by the Department of Environment from a resident that was illegally keeping it.
She said the sanctuary has been caring for the bird and, with the CIS students’ donation, they have been rehabilitating her for release.
“She was probably less than a year old when we got her. So she’s quite young, but we’ve kept up with feeding her the natural foods… and we’re confident that she’ll be fine going around the sanctuary because we have all the native trees there,” she said.
The CIS kids have named the parrot Miss Claire, in honour of their favourite teacher, Claire Nicolas, who said the choice started as a funny story.
“I have an ironically loud laugh that’s known around campus. So, it initially came up as ‘Who is louder, Ms. Claire or a parrot?’ and the kids ran with that. I found it quite funny and loved that it got kids even more interested in a good cause,” she said.
Nicolas, a Spanish teacher at the middle school, said she enjoyed being able to play a small part in raising money for the parrot sanctuary.
“Since the naming fundraiser, I’ve been out to visit her and am honoured to be a part of her release this weekend as well… it has spread awareness in the middle school of a need within our own community,” she added.
Lana Hargrave said she welcomed the donation as it costs between $1,500 and $2,000 to rehabilitate one parrot, which means all of the sanctuary admission costs go directly to that work and the small full-time staff looking after those birds.
She said there are 17 ‘residents’ at the sanctuary that cannot be released for varying reasons including surviving injuries that make it impossible to return them to the wild.
To get involved, email [email protected] or call 938-4400.
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