The North Island Wildlife Recovery Association is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year and they are going to kick off the celebrations with a film premiere. Wellness to Wilderness is a full-length feature film that depicts the associations’ work with wildlife.
“It’s an excerpt of what we have done here over the past 30 years,” summarized Sylvia Campbell, president and co-founder of the NIWRA.
Campbell said the film was created by two organization volunteers. Bob Ennis, who has worked on several Hollywood films including Jumanji, Alaska, Scary Movie and Rocky IV, took care of the filming while Susan Teed helped with the production side.
“It’s taken them two years to put this together,” said Campbell. “I think people will enjoy it.”
While now located in Errington, the NIWRA actually started out in Buckley Bay in July 1985 and did some work out of province before settling into their current property around 26 years ago.
“We started out with nothing,” said Campbell.
Wellness to Wilderness will premier on Feb. 22 at 2 p.m. at the Parksville Community and Conference Centre. Entrance is by donation and doors open at 1:30 p.m.
There will be refreshments available.
At the event, Campbell said copies of the film will be available for sale on DVD for $16. There will also be a silent auction, with items including jackets, artwork and jewellery on offer. All proceeds from the auction will go to the NIWRA.
This is just the first of many events the NIWRA is going to host this year, and Campbell said that the events calendar will be finalized soon. “We’re making a big stink about it,” she said of the anniversary.
The North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre will reopen to visitors for the 2015 season on Mar. 9.