Chris has been volunteering with us for four summers. Kristen met him and thought he would be a great addition to our summer team. We get almost 300 hours from him each year.
Chris will do anything we ask him to do, although doing dishes is not his most favorite thing. He’s a good sport though, because the keepers tease him about hating to wash dishes and he just laughs with them.

Most of the time he helps us inside, caring for our education animals. He cleans cages, mops the floors, prepares a lot of food, and washes our produce that comes in every week. He does what we call “super clean” the exhibit snake cages, taking everything out, scrubbing everything down, and resetting the entire cage again.

He usually brings his lunch and eats in our office. Lunch often involves pepperoni pizza or hot dogs. A couple summers ago, we had a chicken that would roam the halls. Her name was Blueband (Not very original, as she had a blue band around her ankle). Well, she was wandering the halls and walked into the office while he was eating lunch. She was a beggar, just like a dog at the kitchen table. Before anyone knew it, she had jumped up on Chris’ leg and taken his hot dog out of his hand! It’s true.

We miss the antics of Blueband, and we’ll miss Chris as he heads back to school. He’s a great help to us in the summer and we get things done we wouldn’t be able to if Chris were not here.