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Home » Diets that Work » ‘A love for animals’: Junior zookeepers mark 45th reunion – Bloomington Pantagraph

BLOOMINGTON Tory Klingman says her seven years as an unpaid Miller Park junior zookeeper instilled a work ethic that she embodies today.

"I started the program just because I had what a lot of kids have, which is a love for animals," said the 25-year-old operations manager for a Twin City bank.

She had fun learning about animals and studying native habitats, but she also learned the value of hard work and commitment.

"It was instilled in me early on that if I had committed to something, I had to follow through with it," said Klingman. "So if there was a day in the summer that I maybe didn't want to work, I knew I still had to be at the zoo that day because I said I would be."

She was among many children, who in sixth through 12th grades, participated in the zoo's year-round program since it started in 1972.

The zoo is hosting a 45th reunion for its junior zookeepers, past and present, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday.

It's unclear how many children have participated through the years because records weren't kept every year, said Shannon Reedy, a zoo education specialist who has managed the program for nearly 20 years

For the past 15 years, the zoo has kept a waiting list of children who want to participate. Registration is held each year in March.

Each year, the program draws about 240 junior zookeepers from McLean County and towns including Pontiac, Champaign, Lincoln and Springfield.

"There are a lot of teen programs in zoos, but this is is the only year-round program in the country," said Reedy. "So it is unique."

Junior zookeepers attend learning sessions during the summer and on Saturdays during the school year. As they grow older, they begin helping with special events and guiding visitors. Eventually they progress to expanded duties that include preparing animal diets and cleaning exhibits, supervising younger zookeepersand leading seminars, demonstrations and programs.

"They do 6,500-plus hours of volunteer work each year," said Reedy. "These guys do a lot of work. There are a variety of different tasks that they can do. It suits a lot of different areas of interest, and also abilities and skill sets."

Normal native Eric Carlson, 31, was a junior zookeeper from 1998 through 2004. After getting a zoology degree from Western Illinois University, Carlson was a Miller Park Zoo seasonal zookeeper for a year and then moved to the Denver Zoo and Downtown Denver Aquarium. He now works as an aquarist at the Georgia Zoo in Atlanta.

The local program opened Carlson's eyes about the work done by zookeepers.

"The cleaning habitats, the squeegeeing, the mopping, the hosing, the cleaning dishes, the preparing diets all of the dirty work and all of the hard manual labor that it really takes it really showed me that I could do it," said Carlson.

"It taught me to be self-motivated because the animals rely on you, and you have to be there to provide their complete care and to keep an eye on them," he added.

"It was a huge part of my life and something I look back on very fondly," said Klingman. "I am very glad that I was fortunate enough to be a part of it."

Klingman started at the zoo when she was about 11, staying until after her graduation from high school.

"Working there during the summers, even though it was considered a volunteer program, we would do a lot of work during the day to help with the upkeep of the zoo and then we would also get to interact with zoo visitors a lot and sometimes while handling zoo animals," she said.

Jay Tetzloff, who heads the city-owned zoo and the city's parks, recreation and cultural arts department, was 16 when he started volunteering at the zoo in his hometown of Omaha, Neb.

"When I started volunteering at the zoo, I thought I wanted to be a veterinarian," he said. "But as I worked with the animals and the zookeepers, it shaped where I wanted to go and that was to work closer with animals."

"Here, the kids are learning so many different things other than biology or zoology," added Tetzloff. "A lot of life skills are taught."

Follow Maria Nagle on Twitter: @Pg_Nagle

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'A love for animals': Junior zookeepers mark 45th reunion - Bloomington Pantagraph

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Home » Diets that Work » ‘A love for animals’: Junior zookeepers mark 45th reunion – Bloomington Pantagraph