Jennie Drake Park has been recognized by the Atlanta Audubon Society as a bird sanctuary. As a bird sanctuary, Jennie Drake Park will provide the following:

Shelter – active nesting areas or shelters that attract and protect birds and other wildlife.

Food – feeders and plantings that offer seeds, flowers, and berries to wildlife.

Water – birdbaths, water gardens, or natural features with flowing water.

Nesting Sites – bird boxes, natural cavities, or wood piles and vine tangles.

Part of the obligation is to remove invasive plant species, and  provide native plants to support the bird population.

My mother’s belief in community involvement extended beyond her desire to make the community where she lived one in which there was land that could be a viable greenspace.  She also believed that children should grow up in a community, a village, which provided input and guidance that would influence and shape their view of the world.  My friends remember her as “the mother” who provided them with pamphlets and brochures on all aspects of “growing up” during our pre-teen and teen-age years.

Linda Graves (now Linda Stewart) and I met in first grade and, for the last 2 1/2 years of high school, lived around the corner from each other.  Like so many of my childhood friends, we have remained friends throughout the many years since high school graduation.  She has known about Jennie Drake Park from its conception and has followed and supported its progress through the official naming, the brick fund-raising, and, most recently, the applcation for wildlife sanctuary status.   She will always be a part of “the village” that helped shape her and we thank her, her husband Chet, and her son Lyndon for their generous gifting of the two bird feeders that we could include in our wildlife sanctuary certification application.

Millicent Drake Norman

Daughter of Jennie Drake