NORFOLK, Va. — Take a walk through the lobby at Tubbs Used Auto Parts on East Indian River Road, past the fuel pumps and the front desk, and you'll find a refuge. You'll also find Medredith Broadhurst and, the day I visited, her furry friend Clifford.
"Clifford fell from a 150-foot cliff and, thankfully, there was a hiker there at the time," Broadhurst says.
Clifford, a fox Broadhurst estimates is eight weeks old, is one of the thousands of animals rehabbed by volunteers with Evelyn's Wildlife Refuge.
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I learned the refuge treats a wide range of animals, with raccoons, bunnies, squirrels and opossums at the top of the list. Broadhurst took over running the operation when founder and longtime president Evelyn Flengas retired a few years ago.
"Everybody knows her as the redhead, fiery lady, that she was," Broadhurst says of Flengas.
Sadly, Evelyn died unexpectedly in January of this year. But her mission carries on, thanks to dozens of volunteers opening their homes to help rehabilitate these animals.
For Meredith Broadhurst, it's a full-time job on top of her full-time job at the auto parts store.
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I asked why she gives so much of her time to the effort.
"The majority of the animals that come in are because of you know, public interaction, whether they're hit by car or whether you excavated the animals out of your house," she says. "I feel like I'm giving back to what we've done to them."
For all this group does to give back, I wanted to help with a surprise. I presented Broadhurst with a News 3 Everyday Hero award. The honor comes with a $300 Visa gift card from our community partner, Southern Bank.
Broadhurst tells me every dollar counts to help make sure animals like Clifford are taken care of and that Evelyn lives on.
