COMMUNITY
Photography by Toni A. Moon
Coyote pups about five weeks old
A
lmost 60 years ago, a man
on his way home from work
stopped to rescue a bird that
had been hit by a car. The bird was still
alive the next morning, so he and his
daughter took the cedar waxwing to
the only wildlife rehabilitation center
in the Chicago area, Thatcher Woods.
It is not known what happened to the
bird but the father died from a heart
attack mere weeks after that rescue. His
daughter never forgot that experience
and grew up to become a wildlife rehabilitator. Many of us know her as
the founder of Oaken Acres Wildlife
Center in Sycamore, Kathy Stelford.
Once a farm in rural Sycamore was
purchased in 1984, there was no stopping
what was to become a proud legacy
to Kathy’s father, Norman. As Oaken
Acres readies to celebrate its 30th
anniversary, Stelford said, “The first
years were a dream and a nightmare.
I alternated between the
joys of saving lives and
the heartbreak of learning
I couldn’t save them all.
“I think I believed if I just worked hard
enough and cared enough, I could save
all but the most serious cases,” said
Stelford. “Looking back, all the tears shed
over hopeless cases weren’t in vain. They
prepared me for more than just a hobby.
I wanted this to be my life’s mission
and, as Eleanor Roosevelt once said, ‘Do
the thing you think you cannot do!’”
Just a few years after moving to the farm,
Stelford formed a lifelong partnership
with DeKalb veterinarian George
Balster. After he successfully performed
surgery on a red fox with both hind legs
broken and then was present to see it
released back to the wild, he was hooked.
Balster’s enthusiasm for helping and his
curiosity about species he had rarely
handled made him the best friend Oaken
Acres would ever have, Stelford said.
Kathy Stelford has helped rescue
thousands of wild lives over the years.
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DEKALB COUNT Y I NV I R O NM ENTS M AGA Z I NE • M A R C H- A P R IL 20 14
Four years after getting divorced in
1989, Kathy met her future husband,
Mark Stelford, who shared her vision
for the future. Together, they managed
to build more cages, raise more money,
educate more people and bring the
Oaken Acres’ story to thousands of
DeKalb County individuals. The children