Meet the woman behind Sweet on Sarvey fundraiser

Published 9:10 pm Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Her idea is sweet and simple. And it works.

Stand outside grocery stores, ask shoppers to pick up an item for Sarvey Wildlife Center in Arlington, then deliver the goods.

Shoppers like the concept, said Dorthy Ottaway of Marysville, who organized the Sweet on Sarvey campaign for several years. The self-described little mountain kid loves every type of critter, except bees.

She adores hobo spiders.

Her young life in Granite Falls meant long, barefoot days playing at the river.

“I would sit really still,” Ottaway, 34, said. “I’d watch for animals.”

Leslie Henry, clinic director for Sarvey, said Ottaway’s donations have been invaluable to the center. She brought baby food made of dark green veggies for the pigeons and ducks. Baby food with turkey and chicken went to birds of prey. Iams kitten chow fed sea birds.

“We gave her a list of what we needed,” Henry said. “She got gloves, scrub brushes and garbage bags.”

Staffers use bleach with every load of laundry at Sarvey, Henry said. Some items Ottaway collected lasted for two years.

“Her generosity is phenomenal,” Henry said. “We would love for others to do what Dorthy does.”

Ottaway and her giving crew greet shoppers at several grocery stores in Granite Falls, Marysville and Arlington. She provides a list of needed goods and folks go in and shop, pick up a Sarvey item or two, then drop off goods for the fundraiser.

Sarvey aims to treat animals and release them back into the wild. They also have permanent residents, such as an eagle and other raptors, that can’t be returned to the wild and need care and feeding year-round.

It helps that Ottaway knows so many folks around north county. Born in California, her family soon returned to what she called the quaint little town of Granite Falls.

“My grandfather, Leonard Ottaway, was the first person to cross Red Bridge on the Mountain Loop Highway,” Ottaway said. “He was the mailman. My great grandfather Harold Ottaway was a lookout and lived on top of Mount Pilchuck. It was his job to report floods or fires.”

Ottaway was Miss Granite Falls in 1991.

“I represented Granite Falls in the Miss Washington Pageant,” she said. “Out of 50 girls, I was number 18. Not the worst, not the best. Right in the middle. Most of those girls had been modeling all their lives. I was dancing instead. Ballet, tap, you name it. It was my first year competing. I was just glad it was over with. I hate that much attention.”

Ottaway’s grandfather was a gardener and farmer and taught her to love the earth and nature, she said.

“My parents bought me one of those huge dollhouses that was about four feet high with an attic. I used it as my animal hospital.”

Ottaway tended to bugs, butterflies, mice and snakes. She had critters in jars and cages while she nursed them back to health.

“My bedroom looked like a cross between a science lab and a library,” she said. “I would run into bobcats in my back yard and think nothing of it.”

In high school, she enjoyed working with preschool and special-needs children. She now works at a nursery, where she said she loves to consult with customers about what to buy, where to plant and organic growing.

A photographer, Ottaway lives with her boyfriend, Darren Massey. An an online gallery of her photographs is at www.redbubble.com/people/dorthy. She had surgery this year and was unable to coordinate Sweet on Sarvey, but she’s gearing up for next spring’s fundraiser.

Meanwhile she sells her photography to benefit the wildlife center.

“When I was about 6 years old, a deer got hit by a car. She was pregnant and died. The local farmers did a C-section and saved the baby. Nobody could come for the fawn until morning. I slept in the barn all night.”

Sarvey Wildlife Center came and saved the baby deer.

“They’ve had my heart ever since,” Ottaway said.

Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451, oharran@heraldnet.com.