Community Member of the Year

Winner:

Katie Stubblefield

Caring for healing birds and wildlife

Katie Stubblefield stepped carefully around the lake waiting for a sign of acceptance. After months at the Alabama Wildlife Center, she was finally able to release a Muscovy duck that was brought into the center with a hook in its mouth. The bird found its family, and Stubblefield was at peace knowing it was back where it belonged. 

Still, her journey was not over. As she began her walk away from her healed patient, she discovered a baby mallard injured in a drain. Stubblefield knew her duty to the wild had started over again.

“From the standpoint of us being the person to find it and then just going through the whole process, it was just amazing,” Stubblefield said. 

Stubblefield started working at the Alabama Wildlife Center in 2003 as a volunteer. She had always been interested in birds and working with other people through volunteering and community involvements. Although she was still in graduate school at The University of Alabama, she made trips on weekends to help out at the center and fell in love with helping birds and other wildlife heal. 

After school, she was added as a full time employee and now enjoys her role as a healer, educator and advocate for the care of birds and other wild animals. Each year, she directs the care of almost 2,000 patients. Stubblefield also supervises and directs all medical care, housing and feeding to each Alabama Wildlife Center patient from intake through their rehabilitation to their release back into the wild.

Although the passion of those at the center drives them, challenges often arise in funding. As a nonprofit organization, the center must work with a limited staff and budget. Community volunteers are often essential to complete the work needed for the birds and other wildlife. Stubblefield said that since her time starting as a volunteer, she has seen the importance and generosity of the community throughout her work.

“Without the community, I don’t think we’d do what we do,” Stubblefield said.

In the upcoming spring and summer months, the center will house 100-200 baby song birds in its facility. During this time of year, volunteering becomes even more important. Staff alone will not be enough to give the birds the care that they need.

That is where Stubblefield’s passion for wildlife education steps in. For years, she and the rest of the staff at the center have been committed to outreach programs. Several birds who could not be released due to injuries serve as wildlife ambassadors for the center. Through speaking at schools, clubs and more, the center gains volunteers and educates the public on the importance of preserving birds and other wildlife.

Stubblefield encourages community members to fall in love with the care of wildlife the same way that she did — by  volunteering. Getting to know the animals and helping them to return to the wild is a rewarding feeling, she said.

Stubblefield is humbled by the community’s choice of her as the 2015 Community Member of the Year. 

“I’m glad that they’re thinking of us,” she said. “I’m more than grateful. Not just for me, but for the center.”

To learn more about the Alabama Wildlife Center, visit awrc.org.

Runner Up

Keith Richards

Owner of Taziki’s and Founder of HOPE

When Keith Richards was approached by Cindy Vincent at Vincent Middle High School with a project, he knew he could help to make it happen. Vincent, the special education coach and director of the school, wanted to further her students’ opportunities with a business venture. The students would learn to grow herbs at school and then create a business selling the herbs to Taziki’s to use in its restaurants.

Richards and the school took the opportunity from the idea to create HOPE, Herbs Offering Personal Enrichment. He hopes to reach out to more schools to create programs like the one at Vincent. Several students who originally started working during high school have since graduated and have become paid employees for Taziki’s.

“My goal is to not be too much of a role model but to help nourish kids for life,” Richards said. “I’m fortunate to have four healthy children. Some kids don’t have that. It’s up to us to help.”

Richards said that HOPE, like many projects in his life, is a reflection of his belief in God and in doing the right thing. Although much of society can seem like it is headed in the wrong direction, he said, Richards knows that it is his job and other community members’ to give back as often as they receive.

“We do it because it’s the right thing to do and we want to give back,” he said. 

Richards is humbled and appreciative to be recognized in the 2015 Community Awards. 

“It’s another motivational tool to find ways to help, he said.

For more information on HOPE, visit tazikiscafe.com/hope.