Parrot Rescue Showcases Care Challenges at Memorial Fundraiser Event

A $3 ticket bought more than a look at a tortoise, a crocodile and a room full of classroom animals at Moniteau Junior/Senior High School. It also put parrots from Heart and Soul Parrot Rescue in front of families who could handle them, ask questions and hear why bird ownership goes wrong so often when people do not understand the job they are taking on.

The annual fundraiser filled the gym on Saturday, April 18, 2026, with animals including rats, dogs and frogs, along with the parrots brought by rescue workers Bill Minner and Terry Chapman. Attendance was lighter than in past years, Adele Palagallo said, but the event still drew steady interest because visitors could see animals up close instead of behind glass. That hands-on setup mattered for parrot education. Chapman said the rescue often ends up with birds from people who were not prepared for the demands of parrot care, a pattern that fits the species’ long lifespans, noise, behavior changes and daily attention needs.

Heart and Soul Parrot Rescue made that message hard to miss. The West Mifflin-based group is a 501(c)(3), all-volunteer rescue that keeps parrots in foster homes and says bird ownership is a serious, long-term responsibility. Its adoption process requires a two-hour class before a bird can go home. At Moniteau, that philosophy landed in a setting where people were already curious about exotic animals, giving the rescue a chance to explain that a parrot is not a decorative pet and not a casual starter animal.

The fundraiser also reflected the scale of the school club behind it. Creepers & Crawlers has been running for more than 15 years under Palagallo, who teaches biology, ecology, zoology and animal science. The club cares for about 25 animals, most of them housed in enclosures in her classroom, and the fundraiser helps cover the thousands of dollars it takes each year to care for them. Moniteau Junior/Senior High School, in West Sunbury, serves about 650 students in grades 7 through 12, so the event also doubled as a rare public window into a program that teaches animal care by doing the work every day.

The memorial side of the fundraiser gave the afternoon another layer. The event has honored former student Caleb Kiely, who died in June 2023, for three years by 2026, and family members still attend in his memory. Between the memorial, the school club and the rescue birds, the gym became something more useful than a fundraiser: a place where future bird owners could learn what parrots demand before bad habits start.