Not all South Piedmont success stories walk across a graduation stage – some waddle.
A few days ago, Student Success Coach Stacey Fleming was taking a stroll around the pond of the Old Charlotte Highway campus, when she noticed a gosling struggling to keep up with its family.
She inched closer to investigate and discovered the gosling had a piece of twine wrapped tightly around one of its legs. The gosling was having trouble walking and was most certainly in pain.
Fleming attempted to render aid to the bird, but its concerned parents stood guard, discouraging her efforts with warning hisses.
Undaunted, Fleming went back to her office and started hatching a plan B. She soon connected with Carolina Waterfowl Rescue, which told her a rescuer would be on site as soon as possible.
As the day progressed, Fleming and several other concerned employees continued to check on the gosling.
“It was clear that he was worsening as the day went on,” she said. “We had to do something.”
That’s when South Piedmont’s unofficial Gosling Rescue Task Force – comprised of Fleming, Academic Advisor Dr. Traci Griffin, History Faculty Member Billy Dick, student worker Layla Joblonski, and Lindsey Floyd, Education Faculty Member – got to work.
“Our strategy was to run out to the pond and separate the gosling from the rest of the gaggle. Tracy, Layla and I would distract the parents and run interference while Stacey would grab the gosling and try to cut off the string,” Dick said.
It turned out they were exactly the right mix of people to save the feathered youngster’s life. Fleming, a former early childhood educator, has a nurturer’s heart. Dick grew up on a farm and understands goose behavior. Griffin exudes calm, even in the most frantic feathered situations. Jablonski reacted quickly, grabbing supplies from one of the College’s first-aid stations to have on hand for the rescue effort. And Floyd began searching for local veterinary backup in case Carolina Waterfowl Rescue wasn’t available.
Their plan went off without barely a quack, and soon Fleming had the baby goose cradled in her arms.
“He calmed down very quickly,” she said. “He tucked his little beak into the crook of my arm.”
As luck would have it, the representative from Carolina Waterfowl Rescue arrived moments later. The gosling was taken for medical treatment, and is now on the mend. It will be returned to South Piedmont’s campus when it has healed. If its family has relocated, it will be given refuge at another goose-friendly location.
The goose – which Jablonski has named honor of award-winning actor Ryan Gosling – will be just fine, and the Gosling Rescue Task Force will long remember the day they came together to ensure no member of the South Piedmont family – feathered or otherwise – was left behind.
“Reflecting on the teamwork aspect, we were able to come together to figure out an answer to this problem of helping the gosling,” Dick said. “It does speak to helping our students, and how that desire to help cascades over to helping whomever – or whatever – needs us,” Griffin said.
For more information on Carolina Waterfowl Rescue and to donate to their cause, visit https://www.waterfowlrescue.org/.