On October 3, 2026, Jackie’s followers gathered at Bear Mountain Resort in Big Bear Lake, California, for the Wings Over Big Bear commemoration. People who knew the bald eagle through her nest camera could meet one another, watch tributes unfold and remember her together.

Reports indicate that more than 1,000 people attended the commemoration. Among them were Michael and Peggy Muhm, who traveled from Colleyville, Texas, to honor Jackie.

Jackie died in August after weeks of care at Ojai Raptor Center. The October gathering brought together Friends of Big Bear Valley, the nonprofit behind the nest cameras, with Visit Big Bear, Care for Big Bear and other community partners. Wildlife education and conservation were central to the weekend’s purpose.

The San Manuel Bird Singers led the opening. Members of the Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation performed songs, and audience members were invited to join in the dancing.

Local artist Jillana Marshall’s painting of Jackie was unveiled during the ceremony. Another artist, Wes Abarca, created a separate memorial piece with spray paint at the resort. The tributes extended overhead, with a heart and the letter “J” traced in the sky by a plane.

The new artworks joined other tributes around the valley. A week earlier, on September 26, sculptor Paul Waclo’s wooden monument to Jackie had been unveiled at Fawnskin Freedom Park. The carving depicts Jackie in flight with a fish, a different view of the bird many people knew best from the nest.

For Vanessa Bloom, a Huntington Beach resident who watches the eagles with her mother, the gathering offered a sense of connection. “Everyone’s here for a common cause,” she told LAist.

The strength of that attachment had also struck Jenny Voisard, Friends of Big Bear Valley’s media manager. Speaking to LAist ahead of the ceremony, she said, “A lot of people were surprised at how much they were grieving.”

The work behind Jackie’s conservation legacy

The public connection to Jackie depended on years of work that usually happened outside the camera’s view. Friends of Big Bear Valley installed the nest camera in October 2015 after planning, fundraising and obtaining permits. Jackie later occupied the monitored nest, and successive seasons gave viewers a close look at eggs, chicks and the difficulties of raising young in the mountains.

That access also became a teaching resource. Friends of Big Bear Valley’s education program serves students from preschool through high school, with classroom materials and virtual question-and-answer sessions during nesting season. Children can ask about the birds and the habitat around the nest. A familiar eagle gives those lessons a subject students can return to, rather than an animal encountered only on a textbook page.

In its October 2 remembrance, the nonprofit credited its late executive director, Sandy Steers, with making Jackie’s life visible to the public. It also recorded the scale of her nesting history: 25 eggs laid, 10 hatched and seven eaglets fledged. Those figures describe Jackie’s record across her life, not the offspring of a single season or only her years with Shadow.

Her conservation legacy also has a concrete connection to land. In a July 24 funding announcement, Friends of Big Bear Valley said it had secured the $10 million needed for the Moon Camp conservation effort. The effort aimed to protect Moon Camp’s 63 acres, encompassing forest and shoreline within Jackie and Shadow’s habitat.

The campaign received more than 25,000 donations. Anna and Greg Brockman provided more than $5.5 million of the total, completing the fundraising. The money was intended to enable the San Bernardino Mountains Land Trust to buy the property and support its protection.

The July milestone concerned funding for a planned acquisition, not proceeds from Saturday’s memorial. Habitat protection had attracted substantial support while Jackie was still alive.

The October 4 program offered ways to learn about the landscape beyond the nest. Organizers scheduled a guided birdwatching walk, native seed collection for future restoration in the San Bernardino National Forest, and trail-conservation talks at Grays Peak Trailhead.

The gathering also left room for a more personal contribution. Attendees could write postcards for Jackie, and the official event page lists a mailing address for people taking part from elsewhere:

Postcards For Jackie
C/O: Visit Big Bear
PO Box 1936
Big Bear Lake, CA 92315

A message doesn’t require a trip to the mountain. It offers another way for the people who watched Jackie from home to take part in her remembrance.