They came out for dinner, live music and to visit a grizzly bear named Stanley and a tiger named Chuff Chuff, among many other animals.
The members of Bay Area Arbor, part of the Gleaner Life Insurance Company, held a free dinner at Elmira’s Wildlife Sanctuary recently. The event also included a tour of the wildlife sanctuary.
“We are part of a company called Gleaner Life Insurance. They are a nonprofit insurance company,” said Beverly Hiller of Bay Area Arbor. “As a service club, we get people together and we have 24 things that we have to do during the course of the year. We try to improve the community, and Gleaner finances it. All of the profits get put back into the community. Today, all of our Arbor members were invited to come out to Elmira’s for a free dinner and entertainment, and for a tour of the sanctuary.”
There was no cost to members for the event. Elmira’s is also one of Bay Area Arbor’s chosen nonprofit organizations.
“We try to find and help out organizations in which there are no salaries or hierarchies,” Hiller said.
Elmira’s is operated entirely by volunteers and relies on the community for support. None of the animals in the sanctuary could safely be returned to the wild.
Such was the case with the tour’s first stop, visiting Stanley, a young grizzly bear. According to volunteers, Stanley came to the sanctuary at approximately nine months old and has been in contact with people for his entire life. He could not survive in the wild. He doesn’t even know how to hunt. As he is maturing, Elmira’s volunteers have been expanding his home, making the cage large enough to comfortably support him, along with the cool waters of his own swimming pool. Elmira’s is his forever home. He has no other place to go.
Beverly’s husband James Hiller is an insurance agent for the company. According to him, there are no membership fees involved and all profits generated by the organization are returned to the community.
“We have meetings the second Thursday of every month at the Apollo Beach Golf Course,” James said. “Everybody is invited that wants to come; there is free food, no cost involved. Some people are afraid when they hear the word insurance but I won’t call on anybody,” he said, laughing.
For more information about Bay Area Arbor, call James Hiller at 813-645-2095 or visit www.gleanerlife.org. For more information about Elmira’s Wildlife Sanctuary, visit www.elmiraswildlife.org.