Flight Club Foundation began 9 years ago from flying birds indoors with a small group of friends to hosting the premier parrot event in the Seattle metro area. We flew at the Lake City Community Center for many years, keeping our name and understanding very quiet as many other groups were gathering members for flying in the area and we did not want to conflict. We remained this small, familial gro
up flying birds at the Community Center until 2011 when the Association of Avian Veterinarians conference needed parrots for Barbara Heidenreich's Wet Lab. From our experience at the conference, we were nipped in the sharing/community/education bud. We realized that we could share and impact so many other bird lovers and help them and veterinarians learn more about what we can do to minimize stress in parrots during exams. Well, what about minimizing everyday life stress? In that same year, the Community Center was changing leadership, encouraging more children's programs. So, more people became interested in watching the birds simply, informally, fly around and socialize. By 2012, the leadership changed again and an entire school formally entered the building. That's when we realized how little children of today are exposed to parrots and that an educational gap about parrots is continuing to increase. Essentially, only people 40 and older are keeping birds with the younger generation only learning the parrots can bite and that we should not keep them as pets because they live so long. Well, that is the inherent problem. We are getting older and who will be next to care for the birds when we are gone? We kept asking ourselves this and decided by December 2012, we had to take it to the next level. Not only do we need to be there to help other bird lovers of our community cope with the varied and differing challenges of keeping multi-generational pets, but we had to introduce the next generation to parrots! An opportunity came knocking at our door with our respected parrot blogger and learner, Brandon Bulter of Parrot Earth, when he came to video tape our "Parrot Play Dates" and posted it on his blog. The response was overwhelming. This meant we had to do something and we did. We now have put in all the appropriate paperwork with the Federal Government, got our license, insurance and more and now fly at our newest location, Phinney Ridge Community Center. Our core will always be allowing parrots to fly and socialize and helping others to realize that dream of doing the same with their birds. We are first learning how to make it work so we can do that for others. We are helping promote everyone's events as much as we can by attending the event, advocating, advertising, joining and more. All of this takes funding. Every single member of the Flight Club Foundation is a full-time volunteer. Not one of us is paid for any of the work we put into the organization. Instead, we try to put together various fundraisers that not only help us raise funds, but help the community abroad realize the depth and importance parrots have in the world. Truly, the global impact on what we do to parrots and what the reverse means back to the human population is quite overwhelming. Essentially, we need to save every place we find a parrot, captive or wild. People need help in all of these regions and that if we help them, we have something for the future for our own children. So, we developed our first conference to bring together all sources of knowledge about parrots, all careers affected by parrots, games about parrots and parrots themselves to show the world their utmost significance and our own significance. Our first Seattle Parrot Expo in 2013 showcased 22 exhibitors with 1500 people coming through the door to see live birds, play games, learn from our featured expert speaker Dr. Susan Friedman, PhD. The Seattle Times did a spread about us and more! It was a smashing success. We decided to make the conference annual. We continue to strive to make improvements, create new programs and give assistance where we can. So, we created The Parrot Grant to do just that. The Parrot Grant is an award we aim to give annually. If enough funds are raised to keep us afloat and continue our programs, we desire to give as much as we can to other nonprofit organizations. Our criteria--how do they impact parrots but the community as well. Our first award was given in 2013 in the sum of two $1000 awards to to local parrot sanctuaries. Macaw Rescue and Sanctuary and Zazu's house hold over 1,000 parrots between the two. They both have done a great many things for their communities as well. Starting in 2015, we hope to have our Parrot Grant listed in the national Grant listing services where anyone can apply. That entirely depends on the IRS at this point. :)
So, it said "Long Description". I hope you enjoyed our journey as much as we have. Stick around as we learn more and share more each year.
