Fundraiser for Avian Wildlife Center

WANTAGE — The Avian Wildlife Center is holding a fundraiser to benefit the wild birds being cared for at their rehabilitation facility and provide people with a good quality seed for backyard bird feeding. The center is selling locally grown black oil sunflower seed. Orders for seed can be placed by mailing a check to the Avian Wildlife Center, 146 Neilson Road, Wantage. Order requests can also be done via email at avianwildlife@aol.com or phone 973-702-1957.

The sunflower seed was grown at Brodhecker Farm. Prepaid orders can be picked up at the Farm store at 2 Branchville Lawson Road, Newton during store hours in January and February. People can also arrange to pick up seed at Avian WIldlife Center locations in Wantage, Green, or Sparta. The bags sell for 10 lbs $9.99, 25 lbs $19.99, and 50 lbs $32.95. Purchase of the seed benefits the Avian Wildlife Center and helps local farmland. Black oil sunflower seed is a favored food source in the winter for many of the local birds.

The money from this fundraiser will be used to purchase an oxygen concentrator that will provide lifesaving therapy for injured birds and materials needed to construct intensive care housing for the recovering birds. The Avian Wildlife Center, a New Jersey Nonprofit Corporation serves the community by rescuing injured wild birds, providing an information service for the public, presenting educational nature programs, and working on conservation projects. The Center is licensed by the state and federal government to work with wildlife, but does not receive any funding from the government for its work. It is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization that operates with donations. Its rehabilitation work has returned thousands of birds back to the wild.