News

O'Cains win Save the Song Birds Hero Award

Lutrelle and Carey O'Cain accept the Save the Song Birds Hero Award from Wild Birds Unlimited CEO Jim Carpenter (left) and Outreach and Nature Education director Brian Cunningham during the company's annual convention in Indianapolis.

By Lightning Reports, Published: July 20, 2024

Hendersonville’s Wild Birds Unlimited Nature Shop received a coveted award from the Wild Birds company during the annual convention of franchisees in Indianapolis recently.

Lutrelle and Carey O’Cain, owners of the shop in the Harris-Teeter shopping center on Spartanburg Highway, were honored by their Franchise leaders with the Save the Song Birds Hero Award — presented annually to only three of the 369 Wild Bird stores in North America. The Save the Song Birds Hero Award signifies the very foundation of Wild Birds Unlimited’s commitment to songbirds and nature and to the communities where the stores are located.

“It is our honor to recognize Store Owners that best represent the Wild Birds Unlimited mission of bringing people and nature together and doing it with excellence,” said Brian Cunningham, director of Outreach and Nature Education. The award “celebrates the stores that find unique and effective ways to share the Save the Song Bird message…and are helping the customers be the heroes.”

“The O’Cains have deeply rooted themselves in their community through various avenues of conservation and charity to include an impressive resume of how they are promoting the Save the Song Bird message. They helped create and support a local bird sanctuary that has evolved into setting up bird housing in parks in their community.”

“We have to give a lot of credit to Crystal Cauley, our friend who recently passed away, for her desire to install bluebird houses in our city parks,” Lutrelle said. “I think Crystal would have liked to see bluebird houses in everyone’s yard. She loved song birds and the joy birdwatching gave to people. She asked for our help with one box and now we are 11 bird houses into her vision. We definitely plan to continue working with the city of Hendersonville to install bluebird houses in all the city parks. Carey and I are excited to provide and promote the joy and education that watching and caring for our songbirds can bring to our community.”

A study published September 2019 in the journal Science found that the population of breeding birds in the U.S. and Canada has dropped by nearly 30 precent (or 3 billion birds) since 1970. While there are some discouraging findings about overall bird populations, there are also encouraging examples of how galvanized human effort can work to bring back our birds.

The changing environment means song birds need help to survive and thrive more than ever. Providing safe shelter is just one way that the community can increase the population of songbirds. For information on how call 828-694-0081.