From leading tours and birthday parties to visiting Title 1 classrooms with our Ambassador Animals, our conservation educators play a hugely important role in our mission of connecting people and nature. Our Conservation Team reached more than 7,000 people in 2021-22 - in no small part because of amazing educators like Kyra Thurow Bartow!
Kyra grew up in the woods of North Carolina and quickly fell in love with birds, wildlife, and the outdoors. She attended Catawba College in Salisbury, NC, where she received a degree in Environmental Education with a minor in Religion. Since graduating in 2013, she has worked at Osprey Wilds Nature Center, Pine Knoll Shores Aquarium of North Carolina, Greenville Zoo of South Carolina, and Marbles Kids Museum. She joined PWC as an educator in February 2022 - which means she's officially been with us for a year now!
An avid birder, Kyra loves all things bird! She also enjoys board games, crafting, and desserts, as well as playing outside in the woods and teaching everyone about the wonders of the natural world.
Who's Kyra's favorite Ambassador Animal at PWC? "Choosing my favorite is super tough," Kyra says, "but right now, it is Willow the red-shouldered hawk because I love her feisty spirit! I love working at PWC because the mission to connect people to nature is really lived out in our daily activities, programs, and way of life. I also love getting to be a part of the Raptor Care Team to connect with such incredible avian ambassadors."
Kyra brings her experience, professionalism, sense of fun, and passion for wildlife to every program she leads at PWC, whether it's for a family of three or a full classroom. We feel so, so lucky to have her on our team. Thank you, Kyra, for a year of connecting people with nature. Here's to many more!
Community Spotlight: Karen McCall
From raptor volunteers to camp counselors, program coordinators to monthly donors, it truly takes a village to keep Piedmont Wildlife Center running. This month, we're celebrating the heart and soul of that village: Karen McCall, PWC's Executive Director!
Karen grew up in Chapel Hill, NC, and spent much of her time outside camping, hiking, sailing, kayaking, backpacking, snorkeling, and diving. She was introduced to the great outdoors by her parents, who took her on her first camping trip when she was less than 8 months old! Karen attended UNC-Wilmington, where she initially pursued Marine Biology but finished with a B.S. degree in Mathematics with emphasis on Physics in 1986 to broaden her opportunities.
After graduation, Karen's love of being outside in nature grew stronger while living and working on sailboats in the Caribbean for 7 years. Upon moving back to the States, she settled near family outside of Charlotte and worked for 10 years at the Charlotte Nature Museum, where she taught kids and families about the wonders of our natural world.
Karen eventually returned to the Triangle, and in May 2012, she joined Piedmont Wildlife Center as a raptor volunteer, outdoor educator, and eventually Director of Education. She became Executive Director in late March 2020 - just as the COVID-19 pandemic was beginning! Thanks in large part to Karen's compassionate leadership, PWC not only survived that difficult time but managed to expand many of our programs, and we're now preparing to celebrate our 20th anniversary in January.
In addition to being an expert outdoor educator and naturalist, Karen is a skilled artist who likes to dabble in linocut printmaking, painting, basket-making, and drawing inspired by her nature encounters. You can find some of her work in our Nature Store!
As a leader, Karen embodies our core values of gratitude, respect, curiosity, inclusivity, and awareness. She is committed to making sure every staff member, volunteer, and camper feels heard, and her passion for helping others form a deep connection with nature keeps PWC's programs grounded in our mission. We are so grateful to have her at the helm of our growing non-profit as we prepare to enter PWC's third decade. Thank you, Karen, for all you do for our staff, campers, Ambassador Animals, and community!
Community Spotlight: Meet Katie Zimmerman!
Autumn always brings many changes our way, from colorful leaves to the start of sweater weather. The change we're most excited about this year? Welcoming our new Education Programs Coordinator, Katie Zimmerman!
Katie grew up camping and exploring in the forests and streams of Georgia. After graduating from Georgia Tech and obtaining her Master's in Teaching from Kennesaw State University, she moved to North Carolina to teach Barrier Island Ecology in the Outer Banks.
Since 2009, Katie has been involved in both formal and informal science education, but outdoor environmental education is her passion! When not busy connecting children to nature, Katie enjoys reading, climbing, snuggling with her two cats, and acting in local community theatre productions.
Katie has been with us for about a month now, and we're already super impressed with her leadership, creativity, hard work, and sense of fun! Welcome to the team, Katie. We can't wait to see how our outdoor education programs grow under your leadership!
Community Spotlight: The Erlenmeyer Family
Our 2022 Support Through The Seasons monthly donor drive wrapped up last week. To celebrate, we're checking in with a few of our amazing supporters: Breanna Erlenmeyer and her awesome kids Celeste and Silas!
Breanna learned about PWC in 2020, when she brought Celeste and Silas to one of our Fly-Through events. Since then, the Erlenmeyer family have become big fans of PWC - and especially our raven Edgar! This September marks Breanna's 1-year anniversary as a PWC monthly donor. She recently shared her story with us:
When we first got hit by the pandemic, we had two small children - a 3-year-old and newborn. My daughter loved going to the zoo, museum, anywhere that had animals, and all of a sudden everything shut down. The hardest part for us was not being able to have outings and enjoy animals anymore.
When Earth Day 2020 was approaching, I did some searching and found that PWC was going to have a drive through event, or Fly-Thru - and it did NOT disappoint. Celeste was so ecstatic to see such amazing animals and meet such caring and compassionate people from our car. After that, I researched PWC more and grew to fall in love with how loving the volunteers and staff are. I am so honored that my children get to grow up visiting such beautiful animals.
After a couple visits, my daughter especially took a liking to Edgar. After numerous visits of Celeste running to Edgar, sometimes bringing him books she wanted to read to him, she asked if we could get him a toy. [Office Administrator] Sam was the first of the PWC family that we got to speak with, and she is one of the kindest people I’ve ever spoken with. She let us know Edgar’s favorite types of toys and Celeste was excited to bring it and a picture she drew for Edgar.
I think the thing we find so intriguing about Edgar is how inquisitive he is. He never seemed scared of us, but it’s been SO neat to see over the past two years him go from staying near the back of his home while my daughter talks to him, to slowly moving closer to her, and he now makes noises almost like he’s talking to her. And now our little boy gets so excited to see him too! The whole walk to Edgar, Silas excitedly proclaims, “See Edgar!! See Edgar!!”
Our most recent visit to see Edgar was when Celeste started kindergarten, she wanted to show him her artwork and worksheets. He sat right up at the front and kept cocking his head as she told him all about her first couple days at school. I never thought a raven would feel like part of the family, but the closeness I see developing between Edgar and my children is the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen.
We look forward to many more memories to be made with Edgar, the growing PWC family, and the literal angels that work and volunteer there. There was no doubt in my mind that we wanted to give monthly to them-they deserve any amount anyone can give them. No matter how seemingly small, a little goes a long way in these animals lives.
We're not crying, you're crying...! Breanna, your family's friendship with Edgar never fails to brighten our team's day and reminds us why we do what we do. Thank you for your kind words and your support.
Community Spotlight: Summer 2022 Interns
Behind every successful event or conservation program, there is an awesome PWC intern - or four! This month, we're celebrating the unsung heroes of Summer 2022: Josza, Eli, Tyler, and Alex, our summer interns!
Conservation interns play an important role at PWC, providing essential daily care for our Ambassador Animals, tracking box turtles in the field with radio telemetry to collect data for our research, and assisting with educational programs led by our conservation staff. This summer, we also welcomed our first administrative intern in recent years! Each of our interns designs and completes an independent capstone project on a topic of their choice during their internship.
Learn more about our interns and their projects:
Jozsa Incorvaia (conservation intern, top left) attends NC State and is currently pursuing a degree in animal science. She worked as a CIT from 2016 until officially becoming a counselor in 2021. Jozsa is thrilled to continue her work at PWC as a wildlife conservation intern. Her capstone project is cleaning up broken glass in Leigh Farm Park and giving our PWC kiosk a much-needed makeover.
Eli Benbenek (conservation intern, top right) plans on graduating from NC State this year with a major in zoology and minors in applied ecology and wildlife science. He like music, reading, and spending time with his new kitties Phoebe and Gus. His capstone project is studying differences in behavior between eastern box turtles in captivity and in the wild.
Tyler Musante (conservation intern, bottom left) is a rising senior at Elon University, majoring in environmental and ecological sciences. Some of his favorite tasks at Piedmont include tracking box turtles, raptor care, and helping present Piedmont’s animals through its educational programs. His capstone project is exploring new ways to provide enrichment for our resident raptor Ambassadors.
Alexandra Moehring (administrative intern, bottom right) is a graduate student at UNC Chapel Hill working on a Masters in Public Administration. When she's not working as a waitress, she enjoys working in her tomato garden, napping, and visiting with Pepper the opossum! Alex's capstone project is developing an updated operations manual for PWC.
Huge thanks to all our interns for their energy, creativity, and hard work this summer. We are so grateful for everything you've brought to PWC!
Interested in doing an internship at Piedmont Wildlife Center? Applications are open now through August 15th for our Fall 2022 wildlife conservation internships! Learn more and apply here.
