Both Soarin' Hawk Avian Rescue and the Raptor Chapter want to build permanent facilities to house and rehabilitate the injured birds. There's a lot of sick birds. We maintain if people knew what was going on, they'd support it. Each group works with about 200 raptors a year, and the centers would be the only ones of their kind in Indiana. But their philosophies are as different as the directors' personalities.
Fink is well-dressed and authoritative.
Her vision for a raptor center began as she sat on a park bench, watching birds she'd helped to fly in the state's falcon-release project take off. It would be one of the pre-eminent raptor sanctuaries in the country, Fink says, and would be unique because of proposed educational programs at the university. The Raptor Chapter has signed a lease for the land next to the college's soccer fields, and Fink hopes to start a major fund-raising drive this year and open in 2002. She formed her group five years ago after splitting with the Raptor Chapter over conflicts in style and philosophy with Fink. She said she had a spiritual experience the first time she held a falcon and smelled its musty, piney aroma.