Nottingham Nature Nook provides healing space for wildlife in our neighborhoods

• Founded over 15 years ago, Nottingham Nature Nook has served as a rehabilitation center and sanctuary for wildlife in Mid-Michigan, and is July's 3-Degree Guarantee winner.
• For every forecast prediction in our 10 pm newscasts in July, if our meteorologist is within three degrees, we'll donate $50 to Nottingham Nature Nook.
• Video shows Nottingham Nature Nook founder Cheryl Connell-Marsh speaking about the sanctuary's mission.

(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)

I'm your East Lansing Neighborhood Reporter Colin Jankowski, introducing you to this month's 3-Degree Guarantee recipient Nottingham Nature Nook, and the work they do to help animals in need in the community.

Along a dead-end dirt road in East Lansing sits Nottingham Nature Nook.

"Primarily, what we started out with, our mission was to raise and rehabilitate wildlife babies," Cheryl Connell-Marsh said.

Founder Cheryl Connell-Marsh says her work with wildlife rehabilitation began in 2008, before establishing Nottingham Nature Nook in 2013, working on small animals like birds and squirrels.

"But after we did that for a couple of years, it was really obvious that, in order to be successful with that, we needed to do a little bit more," Cheryl said.

Now more than 15 years later, Nottingham Nature Nook has expanded to 17 acres in total, and has evolved to a sanctuary for animals, and even people.

"I wanted to feel like I could make people feel better too," Cheryl said. "To show them what nature can provide, what nature can do for them, what amazing healing qualities nature has."

But it hasn't always been an easy road. Last month, two of Nottingham's foxes were released from their enclosure overnight by trespassers , which led to Cheryl asking for the community's help with funding for a security system. She says she feels the culprits misunderstood the Nature Nook's mission.

"We're not about keeping animals in cages," she said. "We're not a zoo. We're about letting them go if we can let them go, but we won't let them go if we don't feel like they're going to be safe and secure, and happy out in the wild."

For every forecast prediction in our 10 pm newscasts in July, if our meteorologist is within three degrees, we'll donate $50 to Nottingham Nature Nook. Cheryl says these donations will be used to continue to expand and evolve the property to allow for more positive improvements.

"Bringing more wildlife out there that people can view, especially when we have wildlife that we're getting to release," Cheryl said. "We want to move them outside and those are areas that more people can come in and see."

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