Photo courtesy of AWC.
Attendees meet a red-tailed hawk at the AWC’s Wild About Chocolate gala in 2016.
The Alabama Wildlife Center is gearing up for its 13th annual Wild About Chocolate fundraising gala.
Scheduled for Feb. 11, the Valentine’s Day themed event will be at 7 p.m. at the Harbert Center in downtown Birmingham.
“It should be a really fun evening,” said Executive Director Doug Adair of the Alabama Wildlife Center. “It is a critical fundraiser for the Alabama Wildlife Center.”
The event will feature a live and silent auction, as well as musical entertainment from the band High Tide. Some of Birmingham’s finest foods and beverages will be catered, Adair said.
Auction items will include South African photo safaris, entertainment and sport packages, original arts and crafts, footballs autographed by Nick Saban and more.
This year’s master of ceremonies is news anchor Brenda Ladun of ABC 33/40.
“We will be introducing AWC’s newest ‘education ambassador’ glove-trained raptors — a beautiful eastern screech owl, one of the smallest owls found in Alabama, and an amazing Eurasian eagle owl, the largest owl species in the world,” Adair said.
Other “education ambassadors,” or non-releasable rehabilitated AWC patients such as a red-tailed hawk, great horned owl, American kestrel and barred owl, can meet gala attendees “up close and personally,” Adair said.
Each year, the Alabama Wildlife Center rehabilitates and releases back into the wild almost 2,000 native wild birds from more than 100 species. The organization reaches more than 100,000 people each year with more than 350 presentations of conservation education programs.
Tickets for the gala are $75 in advance, or $100 at the door.
To register, go to awrc.org, call 663-7930 or email wildlife@awrc.org.