Funds for furry friends

Times Reporter  

 

When she first heard about the flood at the Calgary Zoo six-year-old Brooklynn Adams knew she had to help. 

“I wanted to give them money,” said Brooklynn. 

“She had $20 and she was going to donate that and then friends and family just kind of said well we’ll add to Brooklyn’s donation for the animals,” said Lynn, Brooklynn’s mom. 

“I was surprised when she came up and said I’m donating my piggy bank money to the zoo, and I went why? ‘Well they’re flooded mom and I don’t know what the animals are going to do.’ I thought ‘well, that’s really nice.’ She thought of it on her own, we just kind of went with it.”

The $20 donation quickly turned into $300 as family and friends heard what Brooklynn wanted to do. At the beginning of August, Brooklynn’s granny took her to the zoo and she donated her $300 to them in person. 

There was a sign at the time that said 21 children have donated to the zoo and she said now they need to change the sign to 22. 

Since Brooklynn brought in her donation, more children have shown their support in various ways. Donor Relations Coordinator for the Calgary Zoo Aldera Chisholm said the ideas have ranged from bottle drives to lemonade stands. One girl even brought in $10 of her tooth fairy money to help out. 

“A lot of them are bringing in pictures of their favourite animals and things like that because they said they want to help their favourite animals, which is so incredibly heartwarming for us,” said Chisholm. 

“The funds that they’re bringing us are definitely … a huge help for us.”

Insurance will cover some of the expenses to see the Calgary Zoo fully operational, but it will not cover the majority of it. Chisholm said they are looking at approximately $50 million between damages and lost revenue.

“That’s a pretty huge number to make up so we’re really at the stage right now where every single dollar can make a big difference to us, from things like buying food for the animals to helping us pay staff to feed the animals. Luckily our insurance will cover most of the building costs, it’s all the other stuff that we need help with really,” said Chisholm. 

Anyone wishing to help out has a couple of different options. You can donate online through the Calgary Zoo website. You can also call Aldera Chisholm at 403-294-7671, or e-mail her at donations@calgaryzoo.com. 

If someone wants to run a fundraiser there is a form on the Calgary Zoo website that says ‘tell us about your fundraiser’. By filling out the form it helps keep staff aware of what’s happening, and it provides the potential to use logos if appropriate.

“We’re really short staffed right now so we really appreciate all the folks who are helping us out, just if they can tell us about it that would be great,” said Chisholm.

The island is still a construction zone, and Chisholm says it will still be awhile before it reopens, but for now everything on the north side of the bridge is currently open which includes the penguin plunge, the Canadian wilds and the prehistoric park. The zoo has a BBQ tent set up and activities to make it as fun as possible for anyone visiting the zoo while they work through the damage.