Foundation Builds Facilities at Brent Lodge Bird and Wildlife Trust

We are proud to announce that as our major fund-raising project from the Inspired by Nature exhibition, the Pollyanna Pickering Foundation has given a grant of £9125.00 to fund the construction of new facilities at the Brent Lodge Bird and Wildlife Trust in Chichester. This grant will provide all the materials required to build 12 new bird of prey aviaries, 5 new water pool enclosures, mammal rehabilitation enclosures, an admissions and quarantine centre as well as a new hospital extension which will then allow the sanctuary to redevelop their existing hospital to bring that up to a modern standard. The new constructions will feature a memorial plaque in Pollyanna’s name.

Brent Lodge Wildlife Hospital is a wildlife hospital based in West Sussex. The purpose of the charity is to provide treatment, care and rehabilitation to UK wildlife casualties and orphans with the aim of getting them fit and healthy for release back into the wild where they belong. They have been saving wildlife for nearly 50 years, and receive about 3,500 wildlife patients each year. Whilst a majority of these are birds they also treat about 600 hedgehogs annually, as well as a number of other mammals and reptiles. As well as providing the very best care to their wildlife patients they also answer several thousand phone calls and email enquiries every year, resolving wildlife welfare concerns, and are dedicated to spreading awareness about the welfare of wildlife in the local community through outreach work

For fifteen years Pollyanna ran a rescue and rehabilitation sanctuary for raptors and British Wildlife from her home in Derbyshire, funded entirely through a percentage of sales of her artwork. Eventually when her career began to take her away from home for longer and longer periods of time she had to make the difficult decision to stop this hands on work – but she was determined that her paintings would continue to help wildlife. In 2000 she set up The Pollyanna Pickering Foundation with the aim of raising funds to purchase supplies and build pens and hospital units for centres carrying outsimilar work in the UK.

The trustees very much wanted the main grant from the most recent exhibition of Pollyanna’s work to help provide permanent constructions which will help her much loved and threatened wildlife into the future.