{"id":25431,"date":"2024-12-13T05:03:42","date_gmt":"2024-12-13T05:03:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eyeweb.in\/newmind\/?p=25431"},"modified":"2024-12-13T05:10:32","modified_gmt":"2024-12-13T05:10:32","slug":"nc-zoo-volunteering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newmind.org\/nc-zoo-volunteering\/","title":{"rendered":"NC Zoo Volunteering"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

By HAOYU ZHENG and\u00a0ERIN HOLLOWAY<\/strong><\/p>

With the arrival of spring and the gradually warming weather, it\u2019s a perfect time to go outside and have some fun! Therefore, UPP staff prepared a meaningful event at the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro, which allowed students to relax and experience the beauty of nature. Why was it meaningful? UPP students volunteered in teams to create paper-mache enrichment toys for the animals, which earned them free entry to explore the zoo!<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

On Saturday, March 18, the teams gathered outside University Towers at 8:30. Although it was drizzling, 36 students were still looking forward to the trip. After arriving at the zoo, students were split into two groups, one group visited the zoo while the other group experienced the volunteer job. The two groups rotated between these activities.<\/p>

\u201cWe are going to make 200 Easter eggs for the animals, so they will also have fun on that day,\u201d Diane Powell, the volunteer director of the zoo, said. \u201cThese eggs can make them active. We call this an enrichment\/play project.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Making paper-mache eggs was an interesting activity; most students had never seen this before, so Mrs. Powell explained the production process in detail. \u00a0Surprisingly, all of the materials used to make the eggs were safe for the animals to eat! After that, the group split into two teams: the first was responsible for making the egg shapes and the second team needed to use their imagination to decorate the eggs with non-toxic paint. The final results looked great! Some students wrote Chinese blessings on the eggs, while others wrote \u201cGo Wolfpack\u201d or painted beautiful shapes and designs.<\/p>

\u201cI personally think this activity is very meaningful,\u201d Shawn Shang Gao said. \u201cWe need to do more to help them [animals].\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

After both groups of students finished their volunteer job, they were free to explore! Fortunately, the drizzly weather had improved and the temperature was comfortable, so it was a great time to admire the zoo animals!<\/p>

\u201cI like animals, and I hope I can see some animals here that China does not have.\u201d Aurora Yinan Ding said.<\/p>

The North Carolina Zoo is one of the largest \u201cnatural habitat\u201d zoos in the United States, meaning there are no cages made of steel and the animals are given enclosures that mimic their natural habitats. The zoo contains three parts: the Africa exhibit, the North America exhibit, and the Aviary. Students could see tons of animals from woodlands, deserts, mountains and the rocky coast! Some of the animals students got to see included zebras, elephants, giraffes, and even polar bears!<\/p>

\u201cI like this immersive feeling,\u201d Peter Bi said. \u201cYou can see those animals from a very close distance, and they are not in the cages.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

At 2:30 pm, the volunteer trip was nearing the end. UPP interns waited at the entrance of the zoo for students to gather and took a group picture together. The zoo also provided luggage tags with different zoo animals\u2019 pictures on it as souvenirs for the students.<\/p>

\u201cAlthough, I am a little bit tired now, I really had a good time at the zoo,\u201d Victor Zhenyu Fan said. \u201cI used to have two dogs. \u00a0Although they have passed away, I still feel happy to help the animals.\u201d<\/p>

For many students, this was their first volunteer experience involving animals, and it was a good chance to relax from the growing pressure of finals. Moreover, after this volunteer job, students have a broader perspective on what taking good care of animals means; it\u2019s so much more than just feeding them. There are other needs that zoo staff have to think about providing.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

\u201cIn the zoo world, many people think that all anybody does is feed the animals and maintain their exhibits; but there is so much more,\u201d Powell said. \u201cThere is a lot more involved in animal caretaking, such as working with doctors to make sure that their health is ok, giving the animals fun things to do\u2026 it takes a lot of people to make these things happen! So, it is a large-scale family event; as it takes a family to raise the child, it takes a village to run a zoo.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By HAOYU ZHENG and\u00a0ERIN HOLLOWAY With the arrival of spring and the gradually warming weather, it\u2019s a perfect time to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25432,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activities"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmind.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmind.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmind.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmind.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmind.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25431"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/newmind.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25443,"href":"https:\/\/newmind.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25431\/revisions\/25443"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmind.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmind.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmind.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmind.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}