EAST LANSING, Mich. — Tucked away from the busy streets of East Lansing, there’s a farm with a mission that’s as rare as it is remarkable. It’s a rehabilitation center for animals, where creatures and humans find care and healing.
There’s a unique calm that blankets this farm, a serenity you can feel the moment you arrive. Officially, the farm is called Nottingham Nature Nook, or the “Nook” for short. It’s a non-profit with a fitting tagline: 'A healing place for creatures great and small’. But we found some humans that love this farm as well.
“My big aha was just how therapeutic it is to be here,” says volunteer Kelly Hekler.
And while the Nook offers serenity to its human visitors, it’s the animals that truly reap the rewards. For them, this farm is more than just peaceful—it's a place of healing, a rehabilitation center that often gives them a second chance at life.
At the heart of it all is Cheryl Connell-Marsh, the founder of the Nook, who says her life’s mission is to care for the injured wildlife that find their way here.
“If a life comes to me in need, whether it’s an animal or a person, I will reach out and help them. I feel very strongly, the older I get, that we are the guardians and stewards of what we have left. We have done so much to harm them, often in ways we don’t even realize. When we keep building subdivision after subdivision, there’s no place for them to go. I believe people want to do the right thing, but we’ve destroyed so much of what is theirs. I feel that we owe them this, and I owe them this, and I have to speak on their behalf.”
Each year, hundreds of wild animals find their way to Nottingham Nature Nook, where they’re nursed back to health and given a second chance in the wild.
For Cheryl, the work is endless and exhausting, but she wouldn’t have it any other way."
“I keep feeding them until everyone is taken care of. Sometimes that means I'm up at two, three, four, or even five in the morning. I tell myself, ‘Okay, you need at least two hours of sleep tonight,’ and then I start again. It’s tough, and there are days when the sheer volume of it all can be overwhelming.”
But Cheryl doesn’t do it alone; she has a host of volunteers, like Christi Pike.
“I started out doing this like once a week and now I'm here every day. I love it, and I just love being able to just take care of them and give back.”
Volunteer Kelly Hekler agrees.
“It’s really good for your soul. You come here after a long day’s work or a stressful week, and these babies—when you sit down with them, feed them, and bond with them—make all your stresses just kind of melt away.”
Cheryl and all the volunteers at Nottingham are good neighbors, because they're trying to make the world a better place,
Cheryl says, “We need to learn to do is to coexist, and if we can't coexist with them, we're never going to coexist with each other.”
Nottingham Nature Nook is more than a wildlife sanctuary; it’s a beacon of kindness and community. Thank you, Cheryl and the volunteers, for being this week’s Good Neighbors and making a real difference.
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