Spotlight on Stephanie Dripps

Every so often, preparing one of these articles is difficult due to the bittersweet nature of the subject matter. Such is the case with this post.

Stephanie Dripps joined the FEBS community about seven years ago as a volunteer, soon after she and her family moved to Hudson from their former home in Pennsylvania. Not many weeks went by before it became obvious that Stephanie and FEBS were a match made in heaven; so much so that she was hired to the newly created team leader position.

Stephanie’s skillset, personality and leadership qualities propelled her to central roles in the sanctuary’s operation. In late 2019, she was elected to the Board of Directors and was simultaneously appointed as Secretary of the corporation. She advanced to the Vice President officer position within the organization in January 2023.

Until recently, Stephanie performed numerous and varied tasks on a daily basis, many of which would otherwise have fallen on the shoulders of the Executive Director. A few examples of such tasks include responding to inquiries about the status of individual parrots; moving parrots from the acclimation unit to their permanent home; representing FEBS at educational outings and events; tallying employee timecards for payroll processing; keeping track of bird food and other essential supplies for reorder on a timely basis; and interacting with other employees to resolve questions, minor problems, and the like. While it’s true that no one in an organization is indispensable, Stephanie comes pretty close to being that at FEBS.

It is said that “all good things must eventually end,” and that’s the sad part of this story: Stephanie resigned her positions with FEBS effective July 31. Family and medical matters have finally taken precedence over her service to FEBS. She will nonetheless always be a welcome and loved member of our family!

Heads Up: Effective immediately, anyone wanting information about a bird resident of FEBS, or a former human companion wishing to arrange a visit with a specific bird, please contact Patricia Norton (Executive Director) by email at BirdMother@flabirdsanctuary.org.