Nature and To Kill a Mockingbird

An Essay on the Nature Center and To Kill a Mockingbird

And Essay by Harry Staley

Pine Point School

March 1, 2011

For my service learning project I worked at the Denison Pequotsepos Nature center, because it was a place that I have had many fond memories as a child. The Nature center is located in mystic Connecticut and they own a lot of land, which is all dedicated to animals, and proven by my research, in Connecticut there are not many places an animal can be and a human cant. In To Kill a Mockingbird It seems like they have plenty of room for animals, because they are always in wooded areas. I truly enjoyed working at my sight, and the memories of working there will live on in my mind forever.

I chose my service sight because it was a place that I spent hours on end in summer camps and I went there hundreds of times with my family. When I was younger I remember going to summer camps at the nature center for about six hours every day and I remember how excited I was to get there and how mad I was to leave. My Mom told me that I was one of the few kids that were actually excited to be in the camp, and I was actually in the activities before I was even signed. I also chose my sight because transportation could have been an issue. When I first went to the nature center I had to schedule my visits so that they would be directly after school, doing that made my visits go a lot smoother.  It was also a great spot to work because I live approximately five minutes away from the nature center. I enjoy working at the nature center, and my mind is slowly bringing back the great memories I had there as a young boy.

When I first started volunteering, at the Nature Center, I had a few very important problems like, communication, rules, and familiarity; these three things were so hard to work with. While I was first in the hunt for an assessment site, I looked at a whole bunch of different places but I really wanted to work at the Nature Center. I emailed them and called them but I never got a response, so I finally brewed up the courage to go to the Nature center and directly ask them if I could volunteer for them. That was a success they still didn’t know the exact dates I would be going but they set up my first visit. When I was about two visits into my assessment project I was told that I was going to be starting animal care, a part of the nature center where you feed the animals. I was okay with idea, but I had no clue where any of the things would be, so I got a tour of the animal cages and I was told where everything would be. The tour helped me a lot, but I was positive that I was not ready to do this on my own, so I worked with a partner named Laura; Laura is one of the head animal care instructors. One problem I have encountered lately was one of the rules, and the rules are very strict when it comes to feeding at the Nature Center. One rule was that I cannot feed a bird of prey without an adult or someone who is over the age of eighteen, because the animals are too dangerous and unpredictable. That was a big problem because that meant when I started to work alone I would need a parent to be with me, and it would be hard to teach them what to do, if I can barely do it myself. I think working in the big animal cages is a scary experience, but it is something that I will never forget about.

Animals are just great things that are hard to understand if you do not have the opportunity to be around them. I have been given the opportunity to work with them and the more time I spend at the nature center the more I understand why animals go there. Most of the animals that are put into the Nature Center are put there because they just can’t live out in the wild, and if they did live in the wild they would not be able to survive. Most of the animals are there because they have had accidents and they could never be released, unless they begin to fly in their cages, in that case there would be a gathering and they would make a decision on whether or not they would try to release the animal. All of the workers and volunteers who are at the Nature Center constantly become attached to the animals and they become crushed when an animal passes on, I was there once and I discovered that a corn snake named Maize died and almost everyone who was there was feeling very sad because Maize was there since before I was born. In the time I spent there I became slightly attached to some of the animals, like Gem, a terrapin. Although the animals don’t know me very well yet they always know who good people are, and who bad people are. When Maize, the corn snake, died everyone was so sad because it was a snake that has been there for ages, and it was healthy but it was just Maize’s time to pass on. When I first saw Maize when she was dead I thought she was sleeping, but then I looked closely and noticed that there was the tail of a mouse coming out of her mouth, which was not pleasant. Everyone was so sad that Maize died but it, “opened up so much more space for animal care”, (Denison) which is a room designated to the animals. The more time I spend at the Nature Center the more I become attached to the animals and at some times the kids.

Over the course of my assessment project I have seen many crazy animals, like Tim Johnson, who was a dog that is from the book To Kill a Mockingbird. Tim Johnson was a very crazy dog, and Atticus killed him because he needed to be killed, because he was sick and needed to be put out so he wouldn’t hurt anyone. At the Nature Center they would never kill an animal; they would try to nurse it back to health no matter what condition they are in. I once had a Blue Herron come in that was so sick and there was no hope for it, and the Nature Center did everything they could to nurse it back to help but it just couldn’t make it. At the Nature I have seen Bob and Wanda many times and they always try to fly at me, at sometimes I almost kicked them, because the talons on them could really hurt me. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird if you kill an animal you are considered a hunter, at the Nature Center if you kill an animal you are considered a criminal. The Nature Center believes that killing live animals is extremely harsh, but in the book killing an animal is something to be proud of. I believe that living animals are things that should be there to look at, in To Kill a Mockingbird living animals are just opportunities to kill. Over the course of working at the Nature Center I have realized that most animals don’t have it so great to begin with and it doesn’t make it any better when there are people like Jem and Scout who just want to kill them.

Now that I have completed my visits at the Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center I feel that I brought a lot of good things there, like humor and courage. When I first started coming to the Nature center I noticed that it seemed most of the people did not have a sense of humor, and when working with dead mice you sure do need it. When I first handled the dead mice, I thought it was the most disgusting thing ever, and it made me feel better when I would crack a joke about the mice, like, “yummy these mice sure do look scrumptious today.” After I cracked a joke like that then my partner would crack a joke, and then after that the job became more satisfying, and not as serious. At the Nature Center I was very courageous, because I always did what I was told to do, which could mean get in a cage with a bird with a wingspan that is three feet taller than me. Some of the things that I was asked to do were not always the most fun thing to do, but I had to do it and if I did it wrong the first time then I would just have to do it again. Most of the things I was asked to do was, feed snakes, birds, turtles, and much more. The second time I went to the Nature Center for my service learning project, my dad and I were taught how to feed every animal at the sight. I had to listen very closely so that when I was there doing it alone I would know exactly what to do. The listening sure did pay off, because in my visits I did not kill or injure an animal. Over the course of my visits I brought a lot of good to my sight, and I will continue to bring the good.

If I were to do this assessment project over again, I think I would have worked at a different sight, because I do not want to repeat something that I have already done, and I would definitely get annoyed with the sight because I want to try new things. If I were to do this Project over again I would choose a different place to volunteer at. I would chose a different place because I do not like working at a place for too long, because I need to keep trying new things, and If I only work at one place I would be repeating things over and over again. Whenever I do things repeatedly I get bored and that is when I get into trouble, and I do not want that to happen. If I stayed at the sight I would get very annoyed, because I need to try new things. I am very bad at doing things over and over again, because I get bored with it and start getting side tracked and then I will screw up, because I won’t be paying attention to what I am doing. If I stayed at the Nature Center I would get aggravated, because every time I go I do the Nature Center I end up doing the same thing forever, and if I ask to do something different they will give me some newspaper and tell me to clean the windows, which is not exactly what I want to do. If I stayed at the Nature Center I would definitely want to work with kids, because the kids actually do things that could be exciting. The first visit I made was with kids and that was the most fun visit I made because I did activities, and there was always something fun planned. I would also want to work with kids because unlike animals, they can talk, and that is always helpful when they want to eat or they get hurt. I love working at the Nature Center but if I were to do it again I would do so many things differently.

This assessment project changed me dramatically in many different ways, because I now understand animals more, I look at them differently, and I developed a liking for working with kids. Working with animals, at the Nature center has really helped me look at animals differently. Whenever I am walking now I always feel like there is something that I could hurt underneath me, which is a very weird feeling but it always makes me aware of my surroundings. I also noticed that if I see an animal that is in danger or could be in danger I want to do what I can to help it. I look at animals differently because I now know how to care for them and I know that there is a place where they can go. Whenever I see an animal, like on TV, I feel like I can help them get better, because I have been around them so much. In all of the time spent at the Nature Center I have witnessed some animals that are quite ill, and I always do what I am asked to do to help the animal get better. Over the course of working at my site I have developed a liking for working with kids. On the first visit I made at the Nature Center I worked with kids and that was my favorite visit I made. I wish that I worked with kids more at the Nature Center, because it was something that I really enjoyed. I have loved working at the Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center and they changed me dramatically in the few short visits that I have made.

Working at the Denison Pequotsepos Nature center has been an experience that I will never forget about. It is an experience that not everyone has the opportunity to do and I consider myself lucky to be a part of it. I think that over the course of working at my site I have become stronger and I also think that I am able to do more than I could before, like cleaning up after myself. The Nature Center truly was a spectacular place for my work site.