2023 Annual Report - Flipbook - Page 3
Dear Supporters,
It’s hard to believe that another year has already passed. This year went by in a whirlwind,
star琀椀ng with the rescue of over 350 fruit bats from Florida and Colorado. Then orphaned
bats came rolling in early with dozens of calls coming in weekly for almost three months
straight. Hundreds of bats were rescued over the summer months. Our sta昀昀 worked seven
days a week, o昀琀en琀椀mes from dawn un琀椀l midnight, helping with rescue calls across the
U.S. as well as our own local rescues, in temperatures that reached 114 degrees F.
As our organiza琀椀on expands, so does our rescue work. When we started to have di昀케culty
keeping up with the increased workload, we hired addi琀椀onal part-琀椀me sta昀昀 to allow us to
handle the overwhelming volume of rescues we were seeing (see page 46). We feel so
lucky to have found these dedicated and compassionate team members just when we
needed them most. Because of them, we were able to care for local rescues promptly, and
also increase our rescue and conserva琀椀on e昀昀orts for bats around the world.
In addi琀椀on to the increased number of rescues this year, we dealt with several cruelty
issues and saved en琀椀re colonies of bats from being destroyed in botched exclusions in 8
states. In the middle of all of this, we came in to feed orphaned bats one morning and
walked into a 昀氀ooded building due to a ruptured water pipe. Thanks to our sta昀昀 and volunteers, who brought their personal shop vacs, buckets and mops, the 昀氀ood was cleaned
up within two hours. Thanks to generous donors, the damage that occurred to our 昀氀oors
was completely covered.
When we no琀椀ced other rescuers across the U.S. struggling with greater numbers of incoming bats, we provided supplies to help them through the summer. We also arranged
transport in states through our volunteer transport network so starving orphans could get
to rescuers who were unable to leave to retrieve them due to the number of bats already
in their care.
As summer came to a close, we were ecsta琀椀c to discover that bats were using our Bat Castle (page 40)! In September, we erected a large bat house at the Na琀椀onal Vietnam War
Museum, which is less than a mile from our Bat Castle (page 32). We also have security
camera footage that illustrates that bats are already checking it out at night!
I am so excited to show you the progress we have made this past year. As you read this
annual report, please remember that you made all of this possible. Without your support,
the bats you see in the following pages would not have been saved. On behalf of these
beau琀椀ful, deserving lives, thank you.
Amanda Lollar
Founder and President
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