Saturday, July 29th, I volunteered to sell food tickets at our Zoo's annual fund raiser. After a blistering run of 102 to 110 degree days, the weather cooled down with the high for the day being 89 degrees progressing to the high 70s as the event continued. This is a fund raiser, so it is a bit pricy at $15 for adults and $12 for kids, although you get all the ice cream cones, sundaes, freezes, soft drinks and water as you can eat. The most popular flavor this year was a chocolately mixture called Mississippi Mud. You can try it out at your favorite Baskin-Robbins store, assuming there is one in your area.
As with most events, the people in charge never listen to the volunteers as to where and how to do things, illogically placing our tables where it was thought people would buy tickets and then proceed to the food line, when in fact they went to the food first, backtracked to where we were, and then returned to the food. In spite of everything, the event was a huge success. The only unhappy creatures were the Orangutans who wanted to go to bed around 6 o'clock but were not allowed to return to their caves. Like most small children, they screamed and hollered and threw things until the keepers relented and let them go back in. I wish I had pictures to show, but I did not take my camera.
It was interesting observing human nature. Tickets were clearly marked at $2 for a hot dog and $2.50 for a veggie burgers. Of course, by now, with the amount of volunteering I have done, I know that people do not read signs. A lot of people mistakenly assumed that each ticket was worth $1 and continued to confuse saying they wanted 4 tickets when what they really wanted was 2 tickets.
On one good note, a friend of mine lost her cell phone and it was recovered and turned in to lost and found within the hour. She could not describe her phone to the lost and found people, so her husband called the phone to verify it was hers, a clever way of doing it.
The zoo is a great place to take kids and this event exposes a lot of people to the zoo that have never been there. They are just completing an on-site verterinary hospital which is very impressive. Much work is being done to update the zoo from the way it was with animals in small cages.
It was interesting observing human nature. Tickets were clearly marked at $2 for a hot dog and $2.50 for a veggie burgers. Of course, by now, with the amount of volunteering I have done, I know that people do not read signs. A lot of people mistakenly assumed that each ticket was worth $1 and continued to confuse saying they wanted 4 tickets when what they really wanted was 2 tickets.
On one good note, a friend of mine lost her cell phone and it was recovered and turned in to lost and found within the hour. She could not describe her phone to the lost and found people, so her husband called the phone to verify it was hers, a clever way of doing it.
The zoo is a great place to take kids and this event exposes a lot of people to the zoo that have never been there. They are just completing an on-site verterinary hospital which is very impressive. Much work is being done to update the zoo from the way it was with animals in small cages.
And that's the way it is!
.0.jpg)
.5.jpg)
