Charity concert in benefit of Procyon Wildlife raises $1,000

Written By JULIA LLOYD

On Saturday (July 13) members of the local community enjoyed an afternoon of music by soprano soloist Angela van Breemen, accompanied by pianist Dale Scaife to help raise funds for Procyon Wildlife. 

The charity concert was held at Christ-Church in Bolton and tickets were $25 per person, with all proceeds going towards feeding many orphaned and injured wild baby animals Procyon Wildlife received earlier this year. 

“We are not funded by the government and all our funding is done by us, we have no paid volunteers, so 100 per cent of what we raise goes back into animal care,” explained one of the board of directors, Debra Spilar. 

This year was the first year for the charity concert and Spilar was surprised, but thrilled to see that the concert raised $1,000 dollars for the organization. 

With the charity concert proving to be a huge success in it's first year, Spilar hopes to continue fundraising and hopefully make this charity concert into an annual event. 

“We are really happy that so many people came out to support us,” said Sarah Bruce, animal care assistant, inventory manager and one of the charities directors. 

“We did not know what to expect, but we are really happy with the outcome” said Spilar. 

The church had roughly 20 people come and support the concert. The soprano soloist herself, Angela van Breeman, is a huge supporter and lover of wildlife care. 

Breeman works at Procyon Wildlife and takes care of the organizations website as well as foster some squirrels. 

Members of Procyon Wildlife put on a display in the basement of the church for people after the mini concert. There were refreshments and snacks along with a display of different animal pelts and other cool things that the organization uses to teach children and the community about wildlife. 

The location for Procyon Wildlife is located on the 7th line just east of Tottenham Rd., North of Tottenham. The organization provides rescue, rehabilitation and safe release of injured and orphaned wildlife. 

The facility itself includes, a veterinary hospital to provide medical and surgical care to sick and injured animals. There are nurseries for raising infants, outdoor enclosures and lastly, a learning centre where children and community groups can learn about wild animals. 

The Ministry of Natural Resources provincially licenses Procyon Wildlife. Each year, the rehabilitation and education centre looks after hundreds of orphaned and injured wild animals. 

The animals brought to Procyon Wildlife are cared for by specially trained staff or by one of the volunteers. The animals are released into their original natural habitats as soon as they are healthy and able to fend for themselves in the wild. 

Both Spilar and Bruce expressed that donations don't always need to be in the form of cheques. Procyon Wildlife has published on there website that they are in immediate need for the following: water cooler, IV fluid pump, tranquilizer gun, cleaning supplies and an industrial washing machine.