If your organization, group or school is interested in what AWRE does, please check out the following press kit created by Erin Fisk, a student at CSULB  It gives a good background of what we, as an organization, are all about.

AWRE is an organization that not only rescues wildlife, like Razzberry (the raccoon), but also is out trying to educate our youth about the importance of the ecological balance.  AWRE travels around the Los Angeles county and speaks to classes from kindergarten to fifth grade. The members bring pictures to show the children; they even bring a live owl whom they have made their mascot. "It is a way to get children interested in the wild world around them and we try to show them their responsibly to nature," Dave Thraen, Executive Director for AWRE stated. "Humans need to respect the world we live in." The people of AWRE hope to get the young children to fall in love with wildlife so they will make a conscious effort to respect it. When AWRE is planning a visit to a school, it starts a week before by delivering an age-appropriate packet to the class. The packet offers teachers and students ideas to study and topics to discuss prior to the demonstration. While in the classroom, the animal handler shows live animals and the instructor teaches facts about the animals such as their diet, habitat and behavior. Students are encouraged to ask questions and participate in the experience. The packet also contains a survey that is picked up a week after the presentation. The members use this as a helpful aid in reflecting what the children did and did not enjoy about the presentation so AWRE can modify its lesson. -more-

In addition to the education program, AWRE rescues and rehabilitates hundreds of animals a year. The goal is to rehabilitate the animals so that they can be returned to the wild and survive on their own. Thraen and his group have made the organization their number one priority, giving up great deals of their free time as none of the helpers are on salary. It is a group of people who work on the project because of their true passion for wildlife and its place in the world’s future. "My grandmother got me into this when I was a boy and I grew up around it," Thraen stated. "I guess you could say it got into my blood and close to my heart."