Recycling Mascara Wands For Wildlife Helps Tiny Animals Survive

WESTFIELD (CBS) - Many wildlife experts are getting the tools they need thanks to a Westfield woman's love of mascara and animals.

"Wands for Wildlife is a program that helps with wild animals that are hurt or injured," Kelly Fedora-Doktor told WBZ-TV.

The program, run by the Appalachian Wildlife Refuge, collects all those old mascara wands you can't use anymore and delivers them to rehab clinics. The size of the wand is perfect to groom the littlest of creatures, remove eggs from fur or feathers, help examine for injuries, clean syringes used for feeding the animals, or even provide a little bit of comfort.

"One person can start something and make a difference and I really saw that," explained Kelly about the role she played boosting donations for Wands for Wildlife.

Kelly started collecting old wands for the organization and over the course of a year received about 200 hundred donations in her Southwick P.O. Box. Then, out of nowhere, one of her Facebook posts went viral.

"Within 8 weeks I had 15,000 wands." she said.

Kelly spent her own money cleaning, packaging, and shipping the wands to headquarters in North Carolina or directly to animal clinics in need.

"I created the base to take this nationwide. And because of that it's just going to grow from there," she said.

Since the project got so big, so fast, the wands are now going directly to North Carolina instead of Kelly's house. But Kelly is still organizing local donations drives and working with Appalachian Wildlife to keep their online profile, and wand donations, up as high as possible.

Before mailing, wash the wands in warm soapy water to remove residual mascara. Kelly lets them dry overnight and then scrubs them clean with an old toothbrush. Once the wands arrive in North Carolina they will be disinfected and distributed.

You can mail donations to:

P.O. Box 1211, Skyland, NC 28776