Nature’s Nursery prepares for big move in the spring
This project has been a long time in the making.
WATERVILLE, Ohio — It is an organization that has, for years, been committed to helping animals in their time of need. And now they’re moving to a new location — in Waterville!
“When we started looking for a new place, we really wanted to stay within this area/community. We’ve been in Whitehouse for 33 years, so Waterville is sort of, you know, the next door neighbor to Whitehouse. People think of us as one in the same and all part of the Anthony Wayne community. So we’re really excited to be able to stay right here in this area,” said Allison Schroeder, executive director of Nature’s Nursery.
Schroeder says the organization’s soon-to-be new location, a former bar and restaurant, makes for an ideal space — and is quite the upgrade from their current one.
“The key to what we do is to have two separate areas for the animals that come in that are sick or injured, as well as the animals that we keep longterm for education. So this building that we purchased was already divided into those two sections,” Schroeder explained.
She says cross contamination will be prevented in this space, as the HVAC system is also separated. Schroeder notes that at their current location, some animals even have to be stored in closets.
She tells me that for a project of this scale, it takes a lot of community support.
“We’ve gotten a couple of significant donors who wanted to anonymously step in and help us out. We’ve gotten some grant funds, we’ve got some support from the city and the county,” Schroeder said.
And helping out sick, injured, and orphaned animals isn’t the only part of the work happening at Nature’s Nursery.
“We’ve worked with the area schools for years and going out to them. But doing that, we can only take, you know, one or two animals. You can only fit so many animals into a car and manage taking them off-site. Whereas, when schools come here, they can now be exposed to all 30 of our education ambassadors. They can learn about all those different species, the important role that those species play in the environment, and then also see them in more of what would be considered like a natural habitat. Whereas, when we take them off-site, they’re just in a carrying case,” Schroeder explained.
Schroeder says work on fitting the indoor space to meet their needs will start soon, with exterior work set to begin this winter. Everything should be complete just in time for the spring.
