And look who's here. Beth Heindor, an executive director of the Racine Zoo, joining me. And she talks to the animals. The animals are gonna tell her what to say this morning. And like Dr.
do little. There you go. There you go. You know what I got to say I see all the Facebook posts and I saw one with my
darling little white fox. Not only one, but there are two of them there. And they're all white now. The brown is gone. I assume the
picture is taken recently. Yeah. And I just fell in love with those two super cute. They sit in that little high perch. And they look at you when you go by. I
don't know what you're thinking. I hope it's nice thoughts. But yeah, I love looking at those through. They're so cute. They are. I love this time of
you. Sure. I started my hand that I get nip, but that's. Okay, it's always the cute ones that do that. It's always the cute ones that
neep. I used to have a Pomeranian. Cute tiny little nip nip nip nip nip nip nip nip. And grab the bottom of your pants leg and it's
always the big ones that are kind and gentle little little one snip and snap at you. Anyway, I did see something
funny. It was on ABC World News. It was a little tiny animal meeting a giant. I think it was a hippo with
a rhino, a rhino. And it was backing up. And I remember Cesar Milan one said, it's all about attitude. It's not
size. Right. And that little one had an attitude. And the rhino backed up and. Oh my goodness. I've heard about it. I haven't
seen it yet. Yeah. The rhino just can pick it up. Make a noise in the rhino backed up. Turn around. Okay, so the zoo
doesn't close down and winter. A lot of people think, wow, it's winter. They'll open up and spring again. They
don't work like that. No. It's year round. The animals don't hibernate for the entire winter and wake up in the
spring. Well, they'll do any of them do that. No, they go and do some of them go into a tooper. But it's just more
they just slow their body down a little bit. A tooper. Yeah, it's like they're kind of a sleep, but a wake sort of
thing. Oh, like I'm not coming in of them. Yeah. Yeah. I had a zinho. Yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. All right. So with our five
minutes is up. Okay. I got to go. Okay. So we have something coming up this Saturday, the 17th, the
burr garden. What's that about? That is correct. Yeah. It is our version of a tailgate. It's on
Saturday, January 17th from noon to two lakefront brewery and public brewing company will be the two
brewers that will be having beer and they'll be pouring those. We're excited about that. And then
buckets second round pub and grill is going to be doing the food. So we're going to be having pulled barbecue
pulled pork walking tacos, some soups, chicken pot pie and a cup. It's going to be phenomenal food.
They always do such a good job. And then both lakefront and public brewing are really good partners of
the zoo. So again, it's our version of tailgating. You can come into the zoo. You get to see the zoo
as well and enjoy some beer and food. It's fabulous. And it's not going to rain or snow this Saturday.
You know, it's supposed to be a little chilly, but we have fire pits and we have patio heaters and
we'll be up at our pavilion area. You know, people always say, what's cold today? Well, you live in Wisconsin. You
don't want cold. Go to my daughter in Florida. We're a friend of mine in Hawaii. I don't complain about
the cold down there. Right. That's true. That's true. But you know, we're hearty Wisconsinites. So let's
come on out and do our version of tailgating. All right. So that's burger garden. Now if people want to go,
how do they set up their reservation? Yeah. So you're going to go to recinesoo.org,
go to the event tab at the top. Do the drop down. Go down to burger garden and buy your tickets.
They will be on sale only until noon on Thursday. Because I have to get all my catering numbers. And so
noon on Thursday. Do not call me at 12.01. Get your tickets booked between now and noon on Thursday.
It'd be great. We'd love to have you out. You're going to yell at people if they call you, aren't you?
No. Okay. I'm just not going to sell them a ticket. All right. A certain point. I would want to yell that.
At certain point, we do have to close sales. Okay. Animal Amore. A mori. Yes. So animal
amore is our part of my French. It is okay. So you and I will know this. So Dr. Ruth meets the
recinesoo is kind of the preface for it. It is actually this year on Valentine's Day, Saturday,
February 14th. It's from six to eight thirty. It's going to be a wonderful meal. Red onion is
doing our food there. You get greeted with a glass of champagne. And then you have a marvelous meal.
There's an open bar and then there is going to be the mating game. So if you can go back to the
version of the dating game back in the day, there will be contestants and there'll be people that
will be answering questions. And it's all about animals and how they get together to make more of
their own kind. So Valentine's Day is on a Saturday this year. Yeah. And so this is a perfect date
night. You're done by eight thirty. You can still take your love somewhere else after animal
amore. And it's such a super fun event. People just love it. And so we keep bringing it back. And
we just always have to refresh the love presentation is how we call it. Wild animal love presentation.
So it's it gets your tickets again. Racinesoo.org or the event tab. Do the drop down to animal
amore and get your tickets. Did I read it? Did you get any new residences here? Uh, we haven't,
but we will be getting some of this year. Okay. I read something about I don't know if you
transferred to another zoo. Well, that was the rhino. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That was our male.
Oh, there's the same pictures back. There's your right letters. We see stuff about him all the time.
Okay. Because everyone shares pictures when an animal from one place goes to another. I could never
work at a vet, an animal shelter or a zoo, because I couldn't say goodbye. I just couldn't do it.
You know, people said to me, what you foster some animals? Because I wouldn't never never let them
go. That's why I had four dogs at one time, because I can't let them go. I got it. It's tough. It's
tough. I would never say goodbye. I couldn't foster an animal. Well, we just can go see
Keanga up there. So we can just Keanga was his name or is his name. So we can go at Milwaukee's
hops, skipping a jump. Is he getting used to the big city? He is. Okay. Call me old-fashioned.
This is now we're talking about March already here. March 25th. Yeah. We just did the first quarter
of for this year. Yeah. March 25th is a Wednesday. We'd like to do events on Wednesday. It's kind of
that home day. It's from six to eight. And for this particular old-fashioned, not unlike our
contest in October, these are ready to drink old-fashioned. It will be in the castle area.
They'll be food. They'll be unlimited tastings of old-fashioned. And it's just kind of a neat way
to, you know, it's kind of that March time where you're really tired of winter, but springs
probably not quite there yet. And it's just one of our favorite little events. And again,
go to recineso.org. Again, we've already have reservations. So once we put the ticket sales
out there, we get reservations right away. So we've already sold tickets to call me old-fashioned.
So get your tickets early. And if you haven't been to the zoo lately,
main street all fixed up with a brand new road. Yeah. Beautiful new road. It looks
it's gorgeous. Yes. All fresh and up and ready to go. Ready to go? Yeah. I'm excited. So that's
nice to not have to have construction this year. And we posted a picture of you on on Facebook
holding a little critter. Do you see the picture? It was a woodchuck. Oh. That was one of my first
pictures that I took when I was here. I need to update it. My hair's a little longer and I'm a
little older. How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck a chuck would they groundhogs
at the same thing? Yeah. Okay. So okay. Because in the movie groundhog, they say, all right,
you woodchuck chuckers. It's groundhog day. And I think the same. It depends on who you're talking
to. And there's actually groundhogs too that are a little bit different look. So you know what,
I love when every day through its snow is in my yard and in my front yard. I come out in the
morning. There's animal tracks like I live in the wild kingdom. There are animal have they
get in the yard? I get a fence. I don't know how they get in. But it's criss-crossing to hold
you all night long there. And I have that nature camera I put out. Yeah. And we put food out there.
And all these wild animals, rhinos and monkeys and all the running through my yard. They come,
they break out of the zoo. They come down here. They hop the fence and they eat my food and they
go back. Oh my god. I do find a lot of tracks out there. Oh, I'm sure. Some of them might be cats
and stuff. But some of them aren't because pretty big. It's like Bigfoot. Oh my gosh.
Beth, I do an executive director of the Racine Zoo joining me. We're talking about all the plethora
of activities going on starting this Saturday right through spring. We're going to get them all in
because you have to reserve your seats. It was every seat to reserve your places for these.
And you want to think ahead of time because when they're full and sold out, they're full and sold out,
all the begging in the world, all the bribery, all the cash you leave on their doorsteps,
is going to mean a thing. Well, maybe a little bit, but no, it won't mean a thing. So you got to
reserve your places for this. Let's talk about the preschool classes, the winter session. I didn't
know you even have these. Yeah, little explorers is for ages two through five for kids with their
favorite adult. Sometimes it's a parent. Sometimes it's a grandparent. Sometimes it's an older sibling.
Sometimes it's the nanny. And they're super, super fun. They're an hour long for length because
for preschoolers, that's about the length of time that we're going to be able to get their attention.
We have a session coming up on Sunday and they're always on Sundays or Mondays.
Sundays, they'd be at one o'clock in the afternoon. Mondays, they're at 10 o'clock in the morning.
And we've got some coming up this weekend, actually. I think you might be able to still register
today. It's called I can identify. And then we've got journal discovery on February 1st and 2nd.
We've got key listening on February 15th and 16 and monkey measures on March 1st and 2nd.
So we do them every quarter and you can register for just one class or you could register for all
four classes in that particular session. And we want to start kids young to learn about nature and
wildlife and becoming stewards of the planet. So it's perfect opportunity for us. They're very,
very popular. And then what's really nice is after they are done with little explorers and we'll
see them in summer camp and we'll spring break camp and then they'll keep going and then be a
zoutine and then become a person that works at the zoo and we've had people like that throughout
the year. So it's super cool. It's a really great way. I've been around animals my entire life.
When I grew up in the Bronx, we had the Bronx Zoo. It wasn't that far away. It wasn't down the
block, but it wasn't that far away. And then when I moved down to Long Island, we had the Mass
People Park Zoo and Kitty Park. And that was those animals came from Africa from bringing back
alive. Frank Buck, who had movies made about him. And there was even a TV series bringing back
alive with Bruce Bixelite and you're playing Frank Buck. And so we always had those animals.
They were always there growing up. And my father had like hundreds and hundreds of pigeons
his entire life. We had dogs. We had cats. We had birds. We had turtles. We have always had,
I was never in a house without animals. And even now that we don't have any more dogs,
my neighbor's dog comes over Friday and spends the day with us. So I got to have an animal around.
Right. They just really make you feel good. Right. I agree. Okay. Animal wishless. This is new.
Is it not? Yeah. No, we've had this for a couple of years. I'm not paying attention. I guess.
Well, you've got a lot on your mind. So our animal wishless are items that are for enrichment
for the animals. And then the different animal care specialists will go on to we have an Amazon
wish list. We have a chewy wish list. And then they can our chouis.com wish list. And then they
can buy things. We're coming up to Valentine's Day. So show the love for the animals, which would
be awesome. We had a lot of Christmas presents bought for our animals this year from people that
just want to do something special. And it's just we try to keep the prices very reasonable.
But these are the things that we can't get. And then we also have people that bring in our toilet
paper rolls, paper towel rolls, boxes, tubes. And we use those types of things as well for animal
enrichment, put food in there or special treats. And it keeps the animal's mind sharp. And it's
just super, super cool. Where do I get this list? Is it online? It's online. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yep.
Under how can you help the zoo? Is the way you're going to do it? So this this website you've got
here under the chewy wish list. Yep. That's actually takes you right to the wish list.
And then so does the Amazon one. You just have to go in there and click on the wish list.
So a buy them and just bring them in. Buy them and then just ship them right to us. And it comes in
and some people write a little note. It's just super, super fun. So we're just incredibly grateful
for all the people that that help and support us and especially on the wish lists. So it's just
something fun. I haven't ever put it on the radio before. So I thought I'd bring that up because
people always want to know how they can help. And we get the phone calls and the emails. And
this is one way to get the list now. You're going to yeah, you're going to go online to
how you can help. And it's called support us. So just do the support us. Do the drop down of that.
And that's where you're going to find all that information. Well, that's interesting. Yeah.
All right. Yeah. I wouldn't mind doing that. Yeah. I did that once with the most
concentrated main society. I used to give them I give donations, but I thought I brought by a big
bag of food for the animal. And I said, this is instant. You know, they can eat it right now.
Let's talk about company picnic. Do you have a big picnic section there? We do. We do. So we get
a lot. I mean, we're a great opportunity for people to have big space for groups from and we have
picnics out there from 25 people to 350 people. So we've got great space for it. We're kind of a
built-in entertainment for the kids because they get to go out and see the zoo. They can hang out
on the playground that they like to see. And then they usually most people just do like a buffet
picnic in the pavilion. They've got, you know, the places for people to sit and they've got
entertainment. Sometimes the picnic or the companies will book bounce houses or face painters
or things like that. So it's just a great venue. And sometimes people forget about that, but they'll
come in. They spend the whole day or part of a day, but they still get to spend the day at the
zoo, even if the picnics done. And maybe say the picnics from 11 to three. And then we're still
open before and we're still open after the picnics. So we have lots of companies that come out and
do picnics. And if it starts to drizzle, it's all under cover. If you're at, if you've rented
the pavilion, yes, if you're not, there's other options. But I mean, we do picnics every weekend.
So we get them booked. We think now that's why I'm bringing it up for everybody because it's
January. Believe it or not, we already have six picnics on the books. So we do some of them come
every year, but some are new. So think about it. If it's for your company or for a church group
or things like that is what you're going to really want to get your picnics booked before we sell out.
And if the zoo caters it, you get monkey chow, you get rhino chow, you get tiger chow.
Oh my gosh, you're nuts. Okay. So let's quick review here. We've got the burr garden coming up
this Saturday. Yep. Saturday, January 17th from noon to two. You get a taste beer, lovely food
from buckets, second round. It's going to be great. Get your tickets, recene zoo.org. Do the
drop down for events and click on burr garden. And the more is. And the more. Yes. Valentine's
days on a Saturday this year. It is. And so we're very excited about that. It's six to eight
30 on Saturday the 14th. You get greedy with champagne. You get a lovely dinner. You get a fun
animal love presentation this year. It's called the mating game. And then there's of course
always little prices for people that take home with them too. Call me old fashioned. We're talking
about the old fashioned drink. Yes. And that would be Wednesday March 25th from six to eight p.m.
It is going to be ready to drink old fashioned. So it's kind of a little bit different twist.
There'll be in the castle. Awesome food. A great opportunity to just hang out. See the zoo
and the animals in a different light and have the Wisconsin drink of the year. Old fashioned.
And the quarterly preschool classes. That's the winter session. This is winter session. Yep.
Little explorers for ages two to five. Along with their favorite adult. It's an hour-long
presentation and program. It's reading. It's crafts. It's games. It's story time. It's really great.
A great opportunity for little kids to start to become stewards of the planet.
We have one in January. We've got one in February. Our two in February and a couple in March.
You either sign up for a Sunday, a Monday or sign up for all four of the classes.
This is my favorite one now all of a sudden. The animal wish list.
Animal wish list. I don't know if I was sleeping. Quiver talked about it before,
but it was in a coma. I don't know what was going on. But I like this where you can actually
have food center or anything. Anything from games and toys and jitters and those types of things.
We have an Amazon wish list and we have a chewy wish list. And it's just a great opportunity for
people to support the zoo while supporting our animals. And finally, get those company
picnics stretched and you already have how many already have six booked. And we are in January,
man. You got to get your weekends booked or we were open seven days a week. You can do a
pic, a company picnic on a Thursday afternoon. Why not? And here's something we, okay. Yeah,
go ahead. We didn't talk about is how to become a member of the zoo. And we're a member each
year. We just renewed ours the other day. Yeah. And so if you want to become a member,
it's it is separate looking at you get an individual, the plus one. Yeah. And that's what I do.
The plus one opportunities depending upon the family group or the the person group you want to
be part of. And it's super great. And you can come in all year long with your membership deal.
And except Christmas day when we're not open. And there's reciprocity at over 120 different
zoos and cramps across the country. Yep. So if you're visiting say you're visiting Florida,
there's opportunities for you to go get a 50% off at the zoos that we're reciprocal with.
We just used to take walks and exercise. It's a great opportunity for that too. Yeah.
You know, also old people have a lot of people become members just so they can be like those
walking clubs like you and your wife. I agree. And we just walk around and it's all good.
It's six tenths of a mile throughout we take to know exactly how much it is. She had one of
these walking watches. We talked and everything. Well, thank you for coming in. Of course, thank you.
We got to keep this going because people forget. And if you did forget about anything,
it's going to be podcast tonight at WRJN.com civic media dot us apple podcast Spotify.
We'll ever get you podcasts. It'll be there. Thank you, Beth. Thank you.
So I do an executive director of the receiving zoo.