Why was Lees-McCray College interested in being a part of Jeff Corwin's Southern Wild? And what was it like having the college involved in this TV series and production?

Thank you.

This was such a natural fit for Lise McCray to partner with Jeff on this story of telling the story of the state of North Carolina.

Lise McCray is a leader in environmental education, but also in wildlife rehabilitation, wildlife biology.

We're located in Western North Carolina.

On our campus, we have the May Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, which takes care of about 1,700 injured animals a year.

with the ultimate goal of rehabilitating them to be released back into the wild.

But really, it's an invitation for our audience to come and experience wild North Carolina for themselves.

[laughs]

So, um, you know, I'll have to, to get up my courage and jump into a deep hole real quick before I put on the snorkel and mask and do that.

But to see what is the, the beauty of those, of the fish, of the other aquatic life that live in our native rivers and the streams, especially in the western part of North Carolina, uh, is really fantastic.

And, and yes, um, you can guarantee that, um, that, especially as w- as the w- we get into next summer and the we- when things warm up a little bit, I will be in the river with a, with a mask and a snorkel experiencing everything that Jeff has shown us-

Yeah

... come out.

And that's the other part of the story, is people restore themselves through these experience.

There's a lottery where a, a precious few, 4,000 or 5,000 people will get a ticket, like a golden ticket to go experience that firsthand at Grandfather Mountain.

I

was.

I was fascinated by it as well when I saw the cuts of that episode with Jeff and one of our faculty members and the state biologist snorkeling in the Swannanoa and over in the French Broad River Basin.

It is something that I want to do.

I'm a I'm a fly fisherman at heart.

I love to fly fish.

My preference is to do wild brook trout fishing and really remote backcountry streams in western North Carolina.

and go on this great expedition we will tell the stories and the challenges of saving species that are in trouble but it's through a journey of empowerment and a journey of hope and ultimately it's an adventure