Did you know that over one billion birds die each year from striking windows because they cannot determine that the glass window is a solid object? When Jana Westhoven’s outdoor education classes learned about this disturbing statistic, they became worried about the birds that call Country Day’s campus home.
“All the classes were pretty adamant about doing something to not only bring awareness to this issue but to also protect the birds on campus,” says Westhoven.
With the support and involvement from Head of School Rob Zimmerman `98 and Mark Morawski, head of Lower School, Ayla Atlan `32, Christien-Blake Hall `31, Crosley Brun `33, Betsy Ryan `31, and Jai Whitlock `34 proposed a solution to reduce bird strikes on campus to the Board of Trustees. With the board’s approval, decals designed by Feather Friendly and installed by our facilities team can now be seen on the windows of the Montessori classroom. Thanks to the leadership and compassion of these five young leaders, the decals will help deter birds from trying to fly through the windows.