New Eagle resident named volunteer of the year for National Aviary
By 2 min read
Retired after a long tenure with the Ringgold School District, Linda Fetchen was eager to find some way to do some volunteer work, but there was an obstacle she had to surmount.
She was determined not to drive to Pittsburgh.
“I had resisted,” said Fetchen. “I didn’t go to Pittsburgh. I might go to a doctor, but not to volunteer.”
But the possibility of communing with some eagles and other winged creatures changed the mind of the New Eagle resident about the commute.
Fetchen eventually became a volunteer with the National Aviary, and over the last six years, the 76-year-old onetime English teacher has logged more than 2,000 volunteer hours at the Aviary, helping visitors learn about the hundreds of birds housed within its facility on Pittsburgh’s North Side. As a result of her dedication, Fetchen was recently named its volunteer of the year.
“I do like to learn new things,” said Fetchen, who had been an English teacher and an instructor for gifted and talented students in the Ringgold School District. In addition, Fetchen was also a coach for the Pennsylvania Envirothon, an environmental education program and competition. In that role, “my students and I had to learn about every aspect of wildlife,” she explained.
What ultimately nudged her in the direction of the National Aviary was a trip to Costa Rica. She had been pondering volunteering at a library, but while she was on the journey in the Central American nation, she met people from the aviary and was intrigued.
“Hiking through a jungle was on top of my list,” Fetchen said.
Overcoming her reluctance to make the 25-mile trip from New Eagle to Pittsburgh, Fetchen shadowed another volunteer at the aviary for a day and realized “it had been everything I had been missing since I worked full time,” citing the camaraderie she has with other volunteers and staff and the opportunities to learn and grow.
Holding an owl for the first time “was an experience like no other,” Fetchen said, and she now works with owls, as well as penguins and falcons.
And she has also overcome her misgivings about driving into Pittsburgh, spending her time going back and forth listening to audiobooks.
“Actually, I enjoy it,” she said.