For more information, contact the Rockfish Sanctuary at 434-962-7429, or find it on the Web at RockfishSanctuary.org
“We do all sorts of mammals ... frankly we do anything that shows up,” she said.
on Attinger’s doorstep through a network of volunteer couriers. Unless an animal requires medical attention and needs a trip to the Wildlife Center of Virginia in Waynesboro. Susan Hastings is a retired nurse living in Afton who’s volunteered for the sanctuary over the last three years. “Any help that we can give [the animals] is going to be an overall good thing for the environment,” Hastings said. “Humans are encroaching more and more [on wildlife habitats] ... [there’s] bound to be more accidents, injuries, problems ... fortunately a lot of people find it worth their time to see what can be done to help.” Marina Childs is an Afton native and a rising junior studying wildlife sciences at Virginia Tech. She came to work for Rockfish Sanctuary for the
summer after someone in Blacksburg mentioned it. “I had no idea, I’d never heard of it,” said Childs, one of three interns at Rockfish Sanctuary this summer managing everything from phone calls to hand-feeding baby opossums. “I’ve learned a ton here,” she said. By spring Attinger hopes “here,” in terms of Rockfish Sanctuary, includes a renovated barn at the Miller School. That project is intended to expand in the coming years to include clinical and educational facilities. The sanctuary in Schuyler isn’t set up to accommodate tours, or programs. “[The Miller School] wants) to be identified more and more as a ‘green school,’ and so this is just a perfect marriage between the two of us,” Attinger said. NCL
SEPTEMBER 2009 NELSON COUNTY LIFE 27