Saturday was the training session for this year's IditaZoo program. Last year was our first attempt at the idea, and we realized that a lot more organization needed to take place before hand. I think we're on the right track, although I still see some areas that might fall thru the cracks again. We were supposed to have everybody who wanted to help out with this year's program attend the training session, but only about 10 people showed up - and that's not nearly enough. I hope the people who were not there are fully prepared this time. Last year, not only did they not know the information they were supposed to know, they didn't even know anything about the zoo!
Anyway, the training session was interesting. Shannon had tables set up around the education building with all the information that will be at each "station" so that we could see what the whole idea was to be. We read thru everything, and then signed up for the station & time period we wanted and took the information packet that pertained to what we signed up for. Earlier, I had asked Shannon if I could get all of the information packets rather than just the one that went with whatever table I signed up for (I seem to be a glutton for information!) so she had made me a special booklet and had it setting off to the side. Everybody else just got the smaller version.
The basic idea of this event is that people will be given a questionnaire sheet at the admissions booth that they are to fill out as they go to each station. The stations represent the eight checkpoints along the Iditarod sled-dog race (station #1: "Knik", station #2: "Finger Lake", and so on). Each station at the zoo will have different information about the race as well as information about the zoo (station #1:"Knik" will have information on Race History and Snowy Owls, station #2: "Finger Lake" will have information on What is a Sled Dog and Polar Bears, and so on). The people will answer one question on their questionnaire form for each station. Once they have answered all 8 questions correctly, they will receive a special "behind the scenes" tour of the polar bear's enclosure as a reward.
Throughout the zoo will be lots of other things going on as well. We will have a board up at the front gate (or maybe over by the coffee shop) giving the latest up-to-date information on the race (ie: which team is where along the route, and who is in the lead at that time). We even plan to have a dog team there to give short rides to the kids. And, I'm working on getting Jon Van Zyle to set up a table offering his latest book "Iditerod Memories" - that will be pretty exciting, I think.
Shannon offered a tour of the zoo after everybody had a chance to look over the tables, but since I’ve been there before (understatement of the year, there) I just took my information packet and went home. I have a stack of papers about an inch tall to read thru and memorize by March! If you go to the IditaZoo (and I hope you do) you can visit me at station #4: "Ruby" from 2:00 to closing time. I can tell you all about the Iditarod race as well as all about the zoo.
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