SOUTH SALT LAKE — A bit of the story of the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah, or WRCNU, is now a short documentary.

On Friday, the public finally had its first chance to see ‘Wild Spirit’, which depicts the group’s eviction from its original home in order to facilitate the expansion of the George S. Eccles Dinosaur Park and the journey its founders have been on renovating its temporary facility on Washington Boulevard.

“Wild Spirit” is the second in a docu-series on animal rescue services called “Rescuers,” the brainchild of filmmaker Josh Carter which was presented for the first time in a screening at Tracy Aviary Nature Center’s Pia Okwai facility in South Salt Lake on Friday night.

WRCNU Executive Director DaLyn Marthaler told the Standard-Examiner it was exciting to see so many people turn out for the premier.

Rob Nielsen, Standard-Examiner

“I’m really happy,” she said. “We had a lot of people coming out to support — a lot of new faces, which is great, a lot of old faces coming to say hi, which is great too. We’ve got some old volunteers that aren’t with us anymore coming out to support. It’s actually heartwarming.”

In addition to a screening of the half-hour documentary, Friday’s festivities included appearances by some of the birds in WRCNU’s care, food trucks and donation opportunities.

Following the screening, Carter told the Standard-Examiner it was exciting to see people’s reactions to the film.

“I think people had some great reactions to it and we had a great turnout,” he said. “I think it went really well.”

“Wild Spirit” producer Taylor Bateman told the Standard-Examiner that she loved highlighting Marthaler and her work with the WRCNU.

Rob Nielsen, Standard-Examiner

“DaLyn is such an incredible character and she just had so much determination throughout the whole episode,” she said. “It was really fun to see people react to that and also just to kind of show her off because she’s this really cool woman.”

Carter said highlighting rescue centers like WRCNU is crucial.

“It sheds light on things that people need to support that aren’t getting enough support,” he said. “Rescue centers everywhere don’t get nearly as much support as they need to to do all of the essential work they do for wildlife. Documentaries like this are a good way to spread awareness for the help that rescues need.”

He said the documentary will be available on YouTube and the Rescuers website to view for free sometime in December.

“I hope that people watch it and feel inspired to go and help rescues, whether that be donations, volunteering and things like that,” he said. “They need the help.”

Rob Nielsen, Standard-Examiner

Marthaler, who noted before the screening that she had only seen a rough-cut of the documentary ahead of time, said it was an emotional experience watching the final cut.

“I think Josh did an amazing job,” she said. “I’m not the easiest subject ot make look good, and he did a pretty good job. A little emotional reliving it. I wasn’t super happy with the comments from Ogden City, but it’s under the bridge so we move on.”

For now, the WRCNU will continue to provide services at its temporary facility on Washington Boulevard.

Marthaler described the temporary facility — which is a combination of an old house and an adjacent commercial building — as working out “as good as can be expected.”

“We’re feeling the sorrow of having to turn things away that we can’t do, like aquatics and stuff like that,” she said. “Some of the bigger animals we’re not able to care for now, but at least we’re able to be there for some of them, so we’re happy to do that. We do look forward to building a new facility as quickly as possible.”

Image supplied, Josh Carter

She said the WRCNU is currently looking after around 80-100 animals.

Currently, the WRCNU owns a plot of land along Highway 89 in Harrisville that will be the future home of the group.

“We’ve got an initial layout, super rough draft,” Marthaler said.

She said the group is currently narrowing down plans and looking to have the land assessed so they can begin working on permitting and other necessary items.

Marthaler said once a framework of how to move forward is in place, they’ll begin a capital campaign to raise the necessary funds.

“It’s probably going to take five years is what we anticipate,” she said. “I would like to start (fundraising) next year.”

She said she hopes people take away a few lessons from the documentary when it becomes publicly available later in the year.

“I hope they, one, take my advice and start taking a walk outside and looking around and appreciating what’s in their environment and appreciating how amazing our animals are,” she said. “But I also hope they jump on board and help us move this forward.”

For more on the WRCNU, visit https://wrcnu.org/.

For more on “Rescuers,” visit https://rescuersdoc.wixsite.com/rescuers.