Summit Park - September

Since it has only been a month, we are not very far in our Summit project, but we have done a few things to show for it. Our community partner is with the Dickerson Park Zoo, and our main goal is to try to get more people from Drury University and the community to volunteer at the zoo.
Our big event we are hoping to pull off at some point in the semester is to get a zookeeper to come to campus with a few animals to get the attention of Drury students and see if they’re interested in volunteering. It is also our goal to post our own pictures on our instagram and twitter to emphasize the interaction of volunteering in the community.
So far, Lauren Pyle, Lauren Slamb, and Genevieve Travers have met with our community partner, Chelsea Hoover, towards the very end of August. Chelsea gave us all a tour of the zoo, which ended up being really cool. She knew a lot of the animals by name and was very knowledgeable on all of them. It was easy to tell that she really cared for all of them.
One of the interesting things on the tour was a small children’s maze that had different noise makers all throughout it. Chelsea said that they sometimes use it for special events, but otherwise it is supposed to be a fun little maze for children to go through. The problem is that it is not aesthetically pleasing. The “maze” part came from old blue and black tarps being tied to different poles. Although the children still love it, Chelsea wants our group to try to spruce it up a little and make it look better.
We also ended up volunteering for about two hours after the tour. Chelsea needed help setting up for an event that was happening that coming weekend, so we went around with her to different part of the zoo duct taping numbers in certain spots to indicate where each vendor should set up their booth. There was also a person from the radio station that came and helped us do this as well. Sadly we had to leave before all of the numbers were taped down, but Chelsea and the person from the radio station was still there to finish the job. They have multiple events for families throughout the year to promote different organizations and just have a good time.
On September 30th, Lauren Slamb and Lauren Pyle spent four hours helping out with the zoo's Ronald McDonald half priced day. McDonald's and the zoo partner up to do a scavenger hunt event for the visitors once a year. So, we got a chance to talk to the guests and help guide them from one exhibit to the other. It was a great experience and gave us a chance to learn more about the zoo and its animals. Although it seemed like a simple task, it takes many people to help run an organization. Each person plays their part. Just like the zoo has many exhibits with different functions, volunteers run in a similar way. Since this particular event was centered towards children, we had the opportunity to visit with kids while they told us their favorite animals and stories of what they had seen. The joy on their faces was absolutely precious and the energy was contagious.
This upcoming Tuesday, October 3rd, the zoo is hosting a Members Night from 5-8pm that we will be helping Chelsea out with. We have yet to learn what we will be doing at the event, but she is very excited to have us and we are happy to help. We were also given official Dickerson Park Zoo t-shirts to wear around campus to help advertise and get more people to come visit the zoo.

Overall, we have had a good transition into doing more for our Summit Park project, and are excited to accomplish more next month!


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