FRIENDS OF THE ZOO
Angels on Our Doorstep
They give new meaning to that phrase and one day out of the blue, our angels came to the door.This marks the fourth year that this amazing group of kids from the Youth Ministry at Good Hope Baptist Church in Eclectic, AL have lent a hand (or thirty!) to spring cleaning efforts here at the zoo. Under the leadership of Youth Pastor, Tim Lawrence and his wife, Vicki, these kids have shown such spirit and dedication to supporting our zoo and we have really bonded with them. They come down twice a year to join in fellowship and serve the local community and (lucky for us) they just happened to stumble upon us a few years ago!
They show up each year with strong backs and big hearts and we put 'em to work with everything from landscaping to scooping poop, cleaning out swampy ponds to painting fences, and all the stuff that no one else wants to do! And for some reason, they keep coming back!
The Annual Low Country Boil
Hosted by Our Snowbirds
The event started eight years ago with a group of folks led by Kenn Krouse from the Wisconsin Snobird Club. They frequented the zoo often and approached Patti one day wanting to know how they could help raise funds for the zoo. Together they came up with the idea for "The First Annual Low Country Boil" selling 560 tickets to members of snowbird clubs from eleven states including: WI, MI, MN, IN, NY, OH, PA, IA, IL, MO, ND & SD. To date they have raised over $50,000 oer the last several years through this ever popular event!
"The Low Country Boil" is an overwhelmingly popular annual event and each year the ticket sales climb! We love seeing so many familiar faces come back year after year to help our zoo - it's like a family reunion! Contact your participating Snow Bird Club for more information on next year's event.
​Living Science Gives a Little Bit
Living Science is a unique group of faith based home-schooled students from Woodstock, GA. As part of their descipleship program, the seniors take a trip every year to offer different forms of community support. As a rule, they do not know where their trip will be each year, and they don't visit the same place twice...except when it's our zoo!
They spent two days with us assisting our crew with landscaping, painting, food prepping, laundry, and raking the camel yard - with smiles on their faces! The end result was amazing and now our pathways and picnic areas look like new!
Emily's Bake Sale
Huge thank you to our future zoo keeper, master bake sale organizer, and one of our biggest fans: 8 year old, Emily Garner. A regular at our zoo, she puts her heart into supporting the animals' care as much as she can! Last year she held a bake sale and raised over $190 to benefit our zoo.
She really outdid herself! She created a very clever menu board, did all the baking herself, set up a tent, and had helpers, too! From "Lady's Peanut Butter Paws" to "Mac & Maggie's Muffins" visitors stopped to grab a sweet treat and help the zoo! As her favorite furry and feathered friends looked on, she sold treat after treat knowing that each sale would go a long way to help offset the cost of food, toys, and comfort for the animals that she has come to know by name.
Click on the Photo to read the full article.
