(Shar | Photo courtesy of Think Wild)
Over the past two weeks, we’ve received a number of very creative, funny, and thoughtful name ideas for our new ambassador bird, a Red-Tailed Hawk who arrived at Think Wild earlier this month. Although we were planning to host a public vote based on these name submissions, we have decided to forgo this process due to some news that we learned this week.
One of our long-time volunteers, John Serres, who you might know as the guy that is always at Think Wild – fixing enclosures, delivering gravel, prepping wildlife diets, organizing cans — submitted the name “Shar,” short for “Sharman.”
Sharman is the name of John’s wife of 25 years, who has been battling her second round of cancer for the last year. She is the main reason why John first started volunteering for Think Wild years ago and is his biggest supporter in encouraging him to continue helping out at our facility in between visits to Seattle for her chemotherapy treatments.
John shared that he “told [Shar] once, as she was counting hawks on a long drive over a decade ago, that [he]would always think of her and her spirit in hawks. This was years before her first battle with cancer.”
This week, a DNA test confirmed that the hawk is female. And just like this hawk is a fighter and a survivor, we can’t think of a better way to honor the shared spirit of another fighter and survivor, John’s wife, Sharman.
We hope you’ll join us in celebrating the name of our first ambassador animal, Shar the Red-Tailed Hawk, and stay tuned for more news on when we’ll first be introducing her to our programs.
I want to offer sincere thanks to everyone in our community who submitted name ideas – you warmed our hearts, made us laugh a lot, and as always, truly appreciate the wildlife supporters in Central Oregon. Thank you!
