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A NEW KIND OF EXHIBIT - AND A TESTIMONY TO DEDICATION
There are two kinds of people in the world - those who kick, and scream, and whine in the face of adversity and those who, when fate serves them lemons, make lemonade.
Arizona Woodlands, The Phoenix Zoo's latest exhibit in 1995, is a tribute to lemonade-makers. Opened in January 1995 on the Arizona Trail, the exhibit went through significant ups and sudden downs in the three and one-half years between conception and completion.
It began with a high motive: the wish to help save an Arizona endangered species from extinction. It got under way with the greatest of enthusiasm. Before long, though, that enthusiasm crashed headlong into hard financial reality. That's when the lemonade-makers took over.
OFF THE BACK BURNER
An exhibit for Mexican wolves had long been on the master plan for The Phoenix Zoo. Over the years, though, the idea had to compete with other projects for funding and priority. In 1991 Bobbie Holaday, representing a group of local conservationists calling themselves "Preserve Arizona's Wolves" or P.A.W.S, approached the zoo with a proposal to fund a breeding compound for the species. Mexican wolf numbers were steadily declining: the world population was below 50. Something would have to be done soon, or the species would disappear.
Ed Eisele of Holsum Bakery of Phoenix, builders of the Zoo's first outdoor exhibit for wolves, agreed to join the effort. So did The Phoenix Zoo Auxiliary, which pledged the proceeds from several fund-raisers to build an adjoining facility for the thick-billed parrot, also an endangered Arizona species.
At about the same time, school children throughout metropolitan Phoenix began their own fund-raising efforts. In the meantime, the zoo staff began brainstorming plans for the complex, researching the optimum Mexican wolf-breeding compound.
Two years later P.A.W.S had staged everything from banquets to bake sales, The Auxiliary and Holsum Bakery had made their contributions, and the last school children's pennies had been counted. The initial plans were completed and sent out for bids. A day of reckoning was approaching.
OOF!
When the bids came in, they did so with the impact of a punch in the stomach. The low bid was roughly twice what two years of earnest fund-raising had earned. As it often does, reality had a sour, critic taste. After the shock settled though, the lemonade-makers regrouped. Rethinking how the exhibit would be built was a necessity, too. The zoo could not afford a monumental structure an architecturally complex exhibit, so it had to rethink its approach to animal and message. Once costs for site preparation were determined they too forced creative pencil sharpening. It was quickly realized that if Arizona Woodlands was ever going to be built it would have to be done by themselves. They could afford private contractors only for those portions of the exhibit they couldn't do themselves.
According to Demlong (exhibits technician with the design team), 70% of the total labor came from volunteers-especially from the zoo staff donating their off-duty time. "The Wildest Club In Town was terrific," he says. "Their members came out weekend after weekend to help us. The Arizona Army National Guard sent equipment and people over to help with road building and preparing the site. But individuals from almost every department of the zoo donated their time, too."
"It was a lot of hard work and blisters, but we had fun, too" says Demlong. Everybody made mistakes, but we all learned on the job and helped one another. We got the job done and we gained from the teamwork." The Phoenix Zoo is the 11th facility where wolf pups have been born. Other facilities where pups have been born are in Albuquerque and in Mexico, at Durango and Mexico City.
WOLVES CAN LIVE TO BE 20 YEARS OLD.
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