Give a hoot about owls

The South Okanagan Rehabilitation Centre for Owls is celebrating its 30th anniversary, and marked the occasion with its annual open house Sunday.

"Today is the only day that we are open to the public, as we are a rehab centre, and all proceeds from this fundraiser go directly to bird care; so their food, their medication, vet bills," said SORCO manager Dale Belvedere. "We rely on this day to get us through the year." 

Proceeds from admission, the silent auction and concession all go back to the birds. Attendees got to meet Houdini, the centre's resident great horned owl, as well as some great horned owl chicks that have recently been rescued and will soon be re-introduced to the wild.

"It's one of my must come-for events, I knew I had to come back from Ottawa for this," said South Okanagan-West Kootenay Member of Parliament Richard Cannings, who attended the event.

Volunteer Anna Terebka looks forward to the open house every year. 

"It's a really special event, the public isn't normally allowed here so we make sure that we open it out to the public once a year so that they can see all the work we do here and hopefully educate some people on birds of prey," Terebka said.

With one hour to go, the event had welcomed 1,600 patrons.